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UNIVERSITY  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 
AT  AMHERST 


UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

Special  Collections  &  Rare  Books 


ILLUSTRATED 


^     ^ 


.  GUIDE"  • 


TO     HISTORIC 

PLYMOUTH 

MASSACHUSETTS 


1921 


BOSTON 
Compiled  ,    Arranged    and    Published    by 
THE     UNION      NEWS      COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT    1921 
BY  THE  UNION  NEWS  COMPANY 


Written  by 
WALTER    F.   WHEELER 

Arranged  by 
REGINALD  CHANDLER 


CONTENTS 


Arrival  in  Cape  Cod  Bay 

Beginnings  of  the  Colony 

Burial  Hill 

Byways,  Old 

Churches    . 

Clam  Raising 

Cole's  Hill 

Common  House,  The    . 

"Compact,"  The  . 

Cordage  Works 

Crowe  House 

Departure  for  America 

Documents,  Old 

Early  Portraits 

Epitaphs     . 

First  Winter,  The 

Fort,  Old   . 

Growth  of  Manufacturing 

Growth  of  Plymouth 

Harlow,  Sgt.  Wm.,  House 

Heirlooms 

Historical  Paintings 

Holmes,  Kendall,  House 

Homes  of  the  Pilgrims 

HOWT.AND  House. 

Indians,  Relations  with  the 

Landing  of  the  Pilgrims     . 


Page 

37 
50 
21 

73 
77 
69 
58 
54 
39 
68,69 


13, 


32 
74 
19 
25 
55 
58 
68 
60 
9 
16 
18 


58 
42 


CONTENTS 


CON'T'D 


Leach  House 

Leyden  St. 

Library,  Public 

Life  on  the  Mayflower 

Mayflower,  The 

Mayflower  Company,  The 

"Meersteads"    . 

Migration  from  England  to  Holland 

Monument,  National 

Pilgrim  Hall 

Pilgrim  Spring    . 

Plymouth  Harbor 
Plymouth  Rock  . 
Preliminary  Explorations 
Public  Buildings 
Registry  Building 
Relics  of  the  Mayflower 
Religious  Faith 
Schools,  Public 
Shipping,  Importance  of 
Shurtleff  House 
"Standish  Guards"     . 
Standish  House 
Tombstones,  Old 
Town  Brook 
Wars,  Plymouth  in  the 
Watch  Tower     . 
WiNSLOw  House 


Page 

9 

52 

71 

34 

34 

36 

55 

31 

11 

11 

21 

49 

29,46 

40 

76 

74 

15 

78 

71 

V       65 

9 

71 

9 

23 

48,50 

71 

59 

16,  74 


J  N    ILL  US T  RAT  ED 

GUIDE 

TO     HISTORIC 

PLYMOUTH 


OLD  PLYMOUTH 


"Here  are  places  and  objects  so  intimately  associated  with 
the  world's  greatest  men  or  with  mighty  deeds,  that  the  soul  of 
him  who  gazes  upon  them  is  lost  in  a  sense  of  reverent  awe,  as 
it  listens  to  the  voice  that  speaks  from  the  past." 

Governor  Roger  Wolcctt 

PLYMOUTH  is  one  of  those  magical  names  which  so 
call  to  mind  events  or  periods  in  American  history, 
that  the  places  themselves  constitute  patriotic 
shrines.  Independence  Hall,  Valley  Forge,  Mt.  Vernon, 
Lexington  and  Yorktown  are  all  names,  the  mere  mention  of 
which  recalls  happenings  that  render  the  places  themselves 
historic  ground.  Among  these,  Plymouth  may  justly  lay 
claim  to  a  rank  which  is  particularly  its  own. 

New  England,  as  a  whole,  might  seem  to  be  a  more  appre- 
ciative guardian  of  historic  shrines  and  fanes  than  certain 
other  sections  of  the  country;  there  has  been  less  of  the 
destruction  of  historic  landmarks  in  the  cities  of  Massa- 
chusetts, perhaps,  than  in  most  of  what  were  the  13  original 


OLD    PLYMOUTH 


colonies.  Much  has  perished,  of  course,  but  much  yet  re- 
mains, to  be  treasured  more  carefully  and  guarded  more 
zealously  by  each  succeeding  generation. 

Old    Homes       Of  the  original  buildings  erected  by 
f  til    P*l     *  ^^^  Pilgrims  very  little  remains  after 

the  lapse  of  three  centuries.  The 
Pilgrims  themselves,  accustomed  to  homes  of  at  least  a  fair 
degree  of  comfort,  probably  intended  that  their  first  rude 
and  primitive  huts  of  logs  should  give  way,  as  soon  as  cir- 
cumstances made  it  possible,  to  homes  of  a  more  permanent 
nature.  Pilgrim  homes  still  exist,  however,  in  the  Crowe 
house  (built  1664)  and  the  Howland  house  (1666),  and  both 
houses  were  built  and  lived  in  by  members  of  the  original 
Mayflower  colony.  Other  homes  of  the  same  period,  or  only 
very  slightly  later,  are  the  Kendall  Holmes  house  on  Winter 


The  Crowe  House 

The  oldest  house  in  North  Plymouth 

Built  in  1664 


OLD     PL  Y  MO U  TH 


The  William  Harlow  House 

Built  in  1677 


Street  (1666),  the  Leach  house  on  Summer  Street  (1679),  the 
Shurtleff  house  (1698)  and  the  Sergeant  WilHam  Harlow 
house,  built  in  1677.  Of  these  houses  those  built  by  the 
Crowe  and  Harlow  families  are  said  to  have  been  built 
largely  from  material  taken  from  the  Old  Fort  on  Burial 
Hill,  when  it  was  dismantled  after  King  Philip's  War.  One 
of  the  early  houses,  which  may  be  seen  just  across  the  bay, 
is  the  Standish  house,  built  in  1666  by  the  son  of  Myles 
Standish.  Architecturally  these  old  houses,  when  they  have 
not  yet  been  "modernized,"  are  extremely  pleasing  and 
many  of  them  illustrate  well  the  use  of  the  gambrel  roof  as 
developed  in  New  England,  which  was  quite  different  from 
the  gambrel  which  was  popular  in  the  Dutch  district  around 
New  York,  Of  these  earlier  Plymouth  houses  the  Howland 
and  Harlow  homes  are  open  to  the  public  at  certain  times, 


10 


OLD    PL  Y  MO  UTH 


National  Monument 
to  the  Forefathers 
Dedicated    1889 


OLD     PLYMOUTH  11 

for  in  one  Instance  the  house  Is  the  property  of  the  Rowland 
Descendants  and  In  the  latter  case  the  house  belongs  to  the 
Plymouth  Antiquarian  Society. 

Monument  to  the    The    National    Monument    to    the 

T?  e     t  u        c.    Forefathers  constitutes,  perhaps,  the 

poreiciiners  .  ,,        i«i 

most     important     memorial     which 

posterity  has  raised  to  the  Pilgrims.  The  project  of  build- 
ing the  monument  was  undertaken  In  1820,  while  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  completed  monument  took  place  in  1889. 
Upon  a  large  octagonal  pedestal  of  solid  granite  stands 
the  figure  of  Faith;  one  foot  rests  upon  Forefathers'  Rock 
and  In  the  left  hand  she  holds  the  Bible,  while  the  right 
hand  points  to  Heaven.  The  four  seated  figures  grouped 
about  the  main  statue  represent  the  chief  principles  upon 
which  the  Pilgrims  founded  their  commonwealth  —  Moral- 
ity, Law,  Education  and  Freedom.  Below  these  four  figures 
are  alto  relievos  representing  scenes  from  Pilgrim  history  — 
the  Departure  from  Delft  Haven  in  Holland  on  the  journey 
to  America;  the  First  Treaty  with  the  Indians;  the  Signing 
of  the  Compact  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  and  the  Land- 
ing of  the  Pilgrims.  A  panel  at  the  front  of  the  monument 
bears  the  inscription:  "National  Monument  to  the  Fore- 
fathers. Erected  by  a  grateful  people  in  remembrance  of 
their  labors,  sacrifices  and  sufferings  for  the  cause  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty."  Other  panels  bear  the  names  of  those 
who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  The  figure  of  Faith, 
36  feet  high,  is  said  to  be  the  largest  granite  statue  in  the 
world. 

Piltyrim  Hall  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  most  Important  of  the 
historical  buildings  In  Plymouth  is 
Pilgrim  Hall,  into  which  have  been  gathered  relics  and  other 
treasures  which  are  closely  connected  with  Pilgrim  history. 
Erected  In  1824  and  extensively  remodeled  In  1880,  Pilgrim 
Hall  is  a  plain  and  solid  structure  of  stone,  of  interesting  pro- 


12 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


portions  and  of  the  period  which  architects  know  as  the 
Greek  Revival,  somewhat  resembHng  many  of  the  old 
churches  which  face  various  "commons"  or  "greens" 
throughout  New  England.  Its  classic  portico  is  adorned 
with  six  Doric  columns.  Within  the  vestibule  hangs  a  large 
painting  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  and  near  it  is  a  por- 
trait of  King  James  I,  and  various  maps  and  views  of  Ply- 
mouth from  which  the  growth  and  history  of  the  colony 
may  be  studied.  Above  the  doorway  from  the  vestibule  into 
the  main  hall  is  a  large  gilded  copy  of  the  seal  of  the  colony, 
reproduced  from  the  Book  of  Laws  of  1685.  The  original 
seal,  which  was  adopted  in  1625,  disappeared  during  the  ad- 
ministration of  Governor  Andros. 

The  Hall,  as  might  be  supposed,  includes  among  its  his- 
torical treasures  many  documents  and  papers  of  various 


The  Elder  Brewster  Chair  and  Peregrine  White  Cradle 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


13 


A  C 


orner  in 


Pilgrim  Hall 


kinds  which  bear  upon  the  history  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the 
colony  which  they  established.  Among  them  is  the  com- 
mission granted  by  Cromwell  to  Edward  Winslow,  appoint- 
ing him  as  one  of  the  arbitrators  between  England  and  the 
States  General  of  the  United  Provinces  in  the  matter  of 
ships  and  goods  detained  within  the  King  of  Denmark's 
dominions  after  May,  1652.  Another  document  of  high  his- 
torical value  and  interest  is  the  colonial  patent  or  charter, 
dated  June  1,  1621,  which  is  certainly  by  far  the  oldest  state 
paper  in  New  England,  if  not  the  oldest  document  in  Ameri- 
ca which  is  connected  with  American  history.  The  paper, 
which  is  written  in  the  style  characteristic  of  the  period, 
bears  the  names  of  the  Duke  of  Lenox,  the  Marquis  of 
Hamilton,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  Sir  Ferdinand©  Gorges  and 


14 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


OLD     PLYMOUTH  15 


one  other  name  which  is  not  legible.  A  clock  in  Pilgrim  Hall 
was  once  the  property  of  John  Hancock,  famous  in  American 
history  in  many  ways,  not  the  least  being  the  fact  that  his 
was  the  first  signature  to  be  placed  upon  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. 

r»  1.  ^  «f  tV.o         Of  the  reHcs  of  many  different  sorts 

xi-ClICS  OI  liiC  ...  1*1        TT    11 

, ,       ^,  which  are  treasured  m  the  Hall,  per- 

*^  haps  those  most  mterestmg  to  the 

average  visitor  are  the  small  belongings  which  were  once 
part  and  parcel  of  the  daily  lives  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  which 
were  doubtless  used  during  the  journey  on  the  Mayflower, 
as  well  as  during  the  first  days  of  their  living  in  Plymouth. 
Peregrine  White,  the  first  child  born  to  the  Pilgrims  in 
America,  was  born  on  the  Mayflower  after  the  arrival  in 
Cape  Cod  Bay.  The  Hall  contains  the  cradle  in  which  he 
was  rocked,  made,  according  to  the  custom  in  Holland,  of 
woven  reeds  or  "osiers,"  and  recalling  the  work  of  the 
craftsmen  which  is  still  seen  in  Holland.  Perhaps  the  cradle 
formed  part  of  the  scanty  household  possessions  of  the  Pil- 
grims when  they  first  left  Delft  for  America,  by  way  of 
England.  There  are  other  relics  too,  connected  with  the 
life  of  Peregrine  White  —  the  shoes  which  he  wore  during  his 
baby  days,  and  —  oddly  enough  —  his  will,  made  when  he 
was  old  and  so  feeble  that  it  is  signed  with  a  cross.  It  must 
not  be  supposed,  however,  that  he  could  not  write,  for  here  is 
also  treasured  a  bond,  written  as  well  as  signed  by  him  some 
years  earlier. 

Arranged  in  Pilgrim  Hall  are  various  cases,  in  which  are 
displayed  relics  relating  to  many  of  the  original  families. 
Amorg  the  most  interesting  of  these  cases  is  that  wherein 
are  gathered  the  various  articles  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  Winslow  family.  Here  are  the  tiny  shoes  which  were 
worn  in  babyhood  by  Josiah  Winslow,  son  of  a  Governor  and 
destined  one  day  to  be  a  Governor  himself.     The  inlaid 


16 

OLD 

PL YMO UTH 

;tp'-                 •           " 

The  Myles  Standish  Sword,  Pewter  Platter  and  Iron  Kettle 
This  shows  the  famous  Damascus  blade,  probably  antedating  the  Crusades 


cabinet  and  beaded  purse  which  belonged  to  Penelope 
Winslow  suggest  that  some  of  the  women  of  early  Plymouth 
valued  the  small  trivialities  of  life,  as  is  also  evidenced  by 
the  careful  preservation  of  certain  slippers  which  were  worn 
by  "Madame  Governor  Winslow,"  —  slippers  of  gray, 
embroidered  with  silver,  and  of  the  kind  which  the  French 
know  as  a  mule,  having  a  high  Louis  XIV  heel,  but  covering 
only  the  instep  and  the  toes.  It  might  be  that  the  Winslows 
were  rather  more  opulent  than  most  of  the  Pilgrim  colonists, 
for  the  Winslow  mansion,  which  is  mentioned  elsewhere  in 
these  pages,  was  built  with  a  frame  imported  to  Plymouth 
from  England. 

Colonial  Heirlooms  New  England  has  always  been  par- 
ticularly fond  of  the  samplers  upon 
which  young  women  wrought  tangible  and  enduring  proof 
of  their  skill  with  the  needle  by  working  upon  squares  of 
canvas  or  other  fabrics,  in  stitches  of  various  kinds,  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet,  sundry  ornamental  borders  or 
other    designs,    the    name  of  the  owner,  of   course,    and 


OLD     PLY M OUTH 


17 


very  often  her  age  or  the  date  of  her  birth.  Added  to  all 
this  there  was  generally  a  verse  or  two  from  scripture,  or 
sometimes  a  poem,  obviously  "home  made,"  which  was 
often  of  a  sternly  pious  nature.  A  sampler  worked  by 
Lorea  Standish,  daughter  of  Myles  Standish,  bears  these 
lines  which  record  sentiments  that  well  become  a  daughter 
of  the  Pilgrims: 

"Lorea  Standish  is  my  name. 
Lord,  guide  my  hart  that  I  may  doe  Thy  will; 
Also  fill  my  hands  with  such  convenient  skill 
As  will  conduce  to  virtue  void  of  shame, 
And  I  will  give  the  glory  to  thy  name." 


A  Chair  Which  Was  the  Property  of  Gov.  Bradford, 
and  an  Old  Spinning  Wheel 


18  OLD     PLYMOUTH 


Other  relics,  relating  in  one  way  or  another  to  the  prom- 
inent Standish  family,  are  the  pot  and  platter  and  the 
famous  sword  which  belonged  to  Myles  Standish.  The  sword 
was  probably  forged  in  Damascus  before  the  Christian  Era, 
and  is  thought  to  have  come  down  to  Captain  Myles 
Standish  from  the  crusaders: 

"Spake  in  the  pride  of  his  heart,  Myles 
Standish,  the  Captain  of  Plymouth, 
'Look  at  these  arms,'  he  said,  '  the  warlike 

weapons  that  hang  here, 
Burnished  bright  and  clean,  as  if  for  parade 

or  inspection, 
This  is  the  sword  of  Damascus  I  fought 
with  in  Flanders'." 

Lon  gj  ellow 

Another  relic,  later  to  be  sure,  but  nevertheless  a  part  of 
Pilgrim  history,  is  the  original  manuscript  of  the  well  known 
poem  by  Mrs.  Felicia  Hemans  on  the  Landing  of  the  Pil- 
grims. Its  lines  which  used  to  be  in  every  "Fourth  Reader" 
—  or  was  it  the  "Fifth"?  —  give  a  vivid  idea  of  life  during 
the  times 

"When  a  band  of  exiles  moored  their  bark, 
By  the  wild  New  England  shore." 

TT.  ^  .  1  T»  •  ^.  Manv  of  the  visitors  who  come  to 
Historical  Faintmgs  n-i     '•      tt  n  /=     i  i      r  •    . 

"    rilgrim  Hall  nnd  much  oi  mterest  m 

the  paintings  of  various  kinds  which  hang  upon  the  walls  of 
this  Plymouth  museum.  There  are  several  paintings  of  his- 
torical scenes,  several  of  which  are  mentioned  or  referred  to 
elsewhere  in  these  pages.  Within  the  vestibule  which  leads 
into  the  Hall  proper  hangs  a  large  picture,  done  in  distemper, 
of  the  "Landing,"  w^hich  w^as  presented  to  Pilgrim  Hall 
by  Robert  G.  Shaw  of  Boston.  Another  painting  of  the 
Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  hangs  within  the  Hall,  at  the  east 
end.  This  painting,  which  is  of  considerable  size,  was 
painted  by  Henry  Sargent  and  given  by  him  in  1834.    Upon 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


19 


■jt 

4 

-^^H 

■i^*'           jffK 

d 

^^^^H 

I^E 

j|L^I 

I^^^B^^ 

m 

•«^ 

^^'^H 

H 

1^, 

4 

K  &.:^HH 

iMHtiib 

i^dim 

^^^  ^mm^^^^^^g 

H^^^^^^HKoeK^.-!!  . 

^H 

m 

HesI^^^^HB 

"The  Departure  from  Delft  Haven,"  by  Charles  Lucy 

the  south  wall  is  hung  a  copy  of  the  painting  in  the  capitol  at 
Washington  of  the  Embarkation  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Delft 
Haven.  Another  historical  painting  of  considerable  interest, 
the  gift  of  Ex-Governor  Rice  of  Massachusetts,  is  Charles 
Lucy's  large  painting  of  the  Departure  of  the  Pilgrims,  while 
still  another  is  the  fine  historical  scene  by  W.  F.  Halsall, 
showing  the  Mayflower  in  the  Harbor  at  Plymouth. 


Early  Portraits 


Other  paintings  are  in  the  forrn  of 
portraits  of  men  or  women  from  the 
Pilgrim  company,  or  the  immediate  descendants  of  the 
Pilgrims.  Among  them  there  are  several  portraits  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Winslow  family  —  Edward  Winslow,  of  the  May- 
flower migration,  who  was  Governor  of  Plymouth  Colony 
in  1633,  and  Josiah  Winslow,  his  son,  who  was  the  first  of 
the  native  Governors  and  who  ruled  from  1673  to  1680. 
These  two  portraits  are  said  to  have  been  painted  in  1651  in 


20 


OLD     PL  Y  MO  UTH 


London  by  Robert  Walker.  Other  portraits  of  the  Winslow 
family  are  those  of  Penelope  Winslow,  the  wife  of  Governor 
Josiah  Winslow,  and  General  John  Winslow,  the  great-grand- 
son of  the  first  of  the  Governors  of  the  family.     He  is  pic- 


<*i 

V 

^Ife  ^ 

MTi^^^^l 

!• 

^^ 

.JHm  1 

^m^^^^--:f^ 

*^.J,^ 

tnk,^ 

IL 

•Jl^KP* 

^^  J 

A  Picture  of  the  Embarkation  of  the  Pilgrims, 
showing  the  "Mayflower's  Shallop" 


tured  in  the  scarlet  uniform  of  the  British  army,  and  was 
csecond  in  command  of  the  expedition  which  removed  the 
Arcadians  from  Nova  Scotia  in  1755. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  portrait  of  King 
James  I  which  hangs  within  Pilgrim  Hall ;  during  his  reign 
the  Pilgrims  made  their  journey  to  America.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  the  wording  of  the  "Compact,"  which  was 
signed  upon  the  Mayflower,  written  by  "the  loyal  subjects 
of  our  dread  sovereigne  Lord,  King  James."  The  Pilgrims, 
although  they  had  departed  from  England,  evidently  had 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


21 


no  idea  of  considering  themselves  as  anything  other  than 
faithful  subjects  of  the  British  crown,  and  therefore  still  a 
part  of  the  realm. 

Plymouth  is  so  literally  filled  with  relics  of  the  Pilgrims, 
that  merely  to  give  a  list  of  what  still  exist  today  would 
mean  a  catalogue  considerably  larger  than  this  little  Guide. 
The  visitor  to  Plymouth,  however,  should  be  sure  to  drink 
from  the  Pilgrim  Spring,  the  water  of  which  is  now  pumped 
to  a  granite  fountain,  which  will  easily  be  found  where 
Main  Street  suddenly  becomes  Tow^n  Square,  shaded  by 
elms  planted  in  1784. 

Burial  Hill  ^^  almost  any  old  town  one  of  the 

most  interesting  of  all  its  historical 
shrines  is  its  old  graveyard,  and  the  curious,  archaic  monu- 
ments and  tombstones  which  it  is  quite  sure  to  contain. 


Wier's  Painting  of  "The  Embarkation,"  at  Washington,   D.  C. 
Depicting  the  "Speedwell"  leaving   Holland 


22 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


Elsewhere  in  this  Guide  mention  has  been  made  of  Cole's 
Hill,  not  far  from  the  water,  which  was  the  earliest  of  the 
Plymouth  burying  grounds,  and  w^here  during  the  winter  of 
1620-21  more  than  half  the  Mayflower  Pilgrims  found  their 
graves.    Burial  Hill,  however,  was  the  first  permanent  bury- 


1  lie  r;;iiui,jal  Approach  to  Burial  Hill  near  Town  Square. 
The  "Church  of  the  First  Parish"  can  be  seen  at  the  left 


ing  ground  and  here  rest  many  of  the  men  and  women  who 
survived  the  first  winter,  as  well  as  many  of  their  imme- 
diate descendants.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Burial  Hill, 
probably  on  account  of  its  lofty  and  commanding  position, 
was  the  site  of  the  Old  Fort  and  Watch  Tower  before  it  be- 
came a  burying  ground,  so  that  it  possesses  a  two-fold  his- 
torical interest.  Tablets  mark  the  locations  of  the  Fort  and 
Tower,  and  many  old  monuments  and  gravestones  mark  the 
resting  places  of  the  first  settlers. 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


23 


In  these  days,  when  the  trappings  of  death  are  not  often 
made  as  gruesome  and  funereal  as  possible,  it  is  interesting 
to  note  the  way  in  which  the  17th  century  seemed  to  dwell 
upon  the  full  horror  of  death,  and  to  surround  the  grave  with 
everything  which  would  make  the  most  of  all  its  terrors. 
Old  tombstones  abound  with  sculptured  cross-bones  and 
with  skulls  —  often  with  wings  attached  —  hourglasses, 
skeletons,  Father  Time  with  his  scythe,  and  sometimes  seat- 
ed upon  an  hourglass,  and  numerous  other  emblems  which 
were  probably  calculated  to  induce  sober  thought.  In  ad- 
dition to  giving  the  names  and  enumerating  the  full  honors  of 
those  buried  beneath,  the  tombstones  usually  bear  epitaphs 

—  frequently  in  verse,  and  sometimes  more  or  less  "labored" 

—  which  are  apt  to  give  the  visitor  considerable  pause. 


Here  Lyes  V''  Budy  of  IVancis  Lebarran,  Phyucian,  Who  Departed 
this  Life,  Aug.  Ye  8,  1704,  in  Ye  36  Year  of  His  Age" 


24 


OLD     PL  Y  MO U TH 


03 
O 

H 

fcJO 

G 

O 

o 


OLD     PLYMOUTH  25 


Befitting  his  high  station  in  Plymouth  Colony,  Governor 
William  Bradford  rests  beneath  a  marble  obelisk  which  bears 
a  text  in  Hebrew,  now  much  worn,  which  is  said  to  mean 
"Jehovah  is  the  help  of  my  Hfe,"  and  a  Latin  inscription 
which  may  be  translated  "Do  not  basely  relinquish  what 
the  Fathers  with  difficulty  attained."  The  Governor's 
monument  bears  his  name  and  the  names  of  his  parents 
and  that  of  his  birthplace,  giving  also  the  years  during 
which  he  served  the  colony.  About  him  lie  many  other 
Bradfords.  Other  early  tombstones  near  at  hand  are  those 
of  Edward  Gray  (1681),  William  Clark  (1697),  and  John 
Cotton  (1699). 

T»      .  1  TT.ii  T-   .        1     The  monument  of  an  eminent  judge 
Burial  Hill  Epitaphs  ,  ^u  •   ^• 

^      ^       bears  the  mscription: 

"This  stone  is  erected  to  the  memory  of  that  unbiased  judge, 
faithful  officer,  sincere  friend,  and  honest  man,  Col.  Isaac  Lothrop,  who 
resigned  his  life  on  the  26th  day  of  April,  1750,  in  the  forty-third  year  of 
his  life. 

Had  Virtue's  charms  the  power  to  save 

Its  faithful  votaries  from  the  grave, 
This  stone  had  ne'er  possessed  the  fame 

Of  being  marked  with  LOTHROP'S  name." 

Elsewhere  the  grave  of  a  child,  aged  25  days,  is  marked : 
"What  did  the  little  hasty  sojourner  find  so  forbidding  and  dis- 
gustful in  our  upper  World  to  occasion  its  precipitant  exit?" 

Above  the  grave  of  Mrs.  Ellen  Lothrop  is  this  epitaph: 
"To  name  her  Virtues  ill  befits  my  grief, 

What  once  was  bliss  can  now  give  no  relief; 
A  Husband  mourns  —  the  rest  let  friendship  tell, 

Friends  knew  her  worth;  a  Husband  knew  it  well." 

This  in  memory  of  William  Rider: 

"Our  life  is  ever  on  the  wing. 

And  death  is  ever  nigh; 
The  moment  when  our  lives  begin. 
We  all  begin  to  die." 


26  OLD     PLY  MOUTH 


In  memory  of  Miss  Patience  Warren,  age  74,  is  this  solemn 
verse,  which  is  also  part  of  a  hymn: 

"Hark,  from  the  tomb  a  doleful  sound;    - 
My  ears  attend  the  cry. 
Ye  mortal  men,  come  view  the  ground 
Where  ye  must  shortly  lie." 

To  Mrs.  Elisabeth  Clarke: 

"Though  the  pale  corpse  is  in  the  Grave  Confined, 

She  leaves  a  Pattern  for  her  Sex  behind. 
The  sun  of  Virtue  never  can  decay; 

It  shines  in  Time,  and  gives  eternal  day." 

And  above  the  graves  of  several  children: 

"Sleep  on,  m.y  babes  and  take  your  rest, 

'Twas  God  who  called  you  when  he  thought  it  best." 

On  another  tombstone,  to  a  woman  with  a  child  by  her  side : 

"Come  view  the  scene,  'twill  fill  you  with  surprise. 
Behold  the  lov^eliest  form  in  nature  dies; 
At  noon  she  flourished,  blooming,  fair  and  gay; 
At  evening  an  extended  corpse  she  lay." 

Above  the  grave  of  a  revolutionary  soldier.  Captain  Jacob 
Taylor;  died  1788: 

"Through  life  he  braved  her  foe,  if  great  or  small 
And  marched  out  foremost  at  his  Country's  call." 

Over  the  tomb  of  Mrs.  Tabitha  Flasket;  1807: 
"Adieu,  vain  world,  I've  had  enough  of  thee; 
And  I  am  careless  what  thou  sayest  of  me; 
Thy  smiles  I  wish  not. 
Nor  thy  frowns  I  fear, 
I  am  at  rest;  my  head  lies  quiet  here." 

Mrs.  Flasket,  during  her  widowhood,  kept  a  private 
school  for  little  children  and  at  the  same  time  did  her  own 
spinning,  according  to  the  custom  in  Plymouth.  It  is  said 
that  her  favorite  method  of  punishing  her  pupils  was  to  pass 
skeins  of  yarn  under  their  arms  and  hang  them  upon  pegs! 

To  most  visitors  who  have  a  sense  of  values,  Burial  Hill, 
with  its  graves,  tombs  and  moss-grown  monuments,  rep- 


OLD     PL  Y  MO  UTH 


27 


The  <  daw  of  Elder  Thomas  Faunce,  Who  Died  in  1745 


resents  the  Plymouth  of  the  Pilgrims.  The  Hill,  which  is 
about  8  acres  in  extent,  is  the  highest  point  in  the  locality 
and  is  the  first  spot  in  Plymouth  to  see  the  rising  sun  and  the 
last  to  see  the  sun  set,  and  here,  upon  its  very  summit,  sleep 
the  men  and  women  whose  lives  and  example  are  worth 
more  to  present-day  America  than  almost  anything  else 
could  well  be.  An  old  "Pilgrim  Almanac"  contains  these 
words  on  Burial  Hill : 

"Stranger!  As  from  this  sacred  spot,  hallowed  by  the 
remembrance  of  the  true-hearted  who  sleep  beneath  its 
turf,  you  cast  your  eyes  around  and  view  scenes  unsurpassed 
in  interest  and  beauty,  —  while  you  behold  flourishing  towns 
and  buildings  abounding  in  industry,  prosperity,  and  hap- 
piness, where  once  all  was  dreary,  inhospitable  and  desolate; 
think  of  the  self-sacrificing  Forefathers,  learn  to  emulate 
their  virtues,  and  firmly  resolve  to  transmit  unimpaired,  to 
latest  posterity,  the  glorious  lessons  of  their  noble  example." 


28 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


OLD     PLYMOUTH  29 


„,  ^1    T»     1       Naturally,  the  most  interesting  thins: 

Plymouth  Rock      .      ^,         \u     (  ^         v 

•^  in   rlymouth,    tor  most   visitors,    is 

Plymouth  Rock,  upon  which  the  Pilgrims  made  their  per- 
manent landing  in  America.  The  Rock  itself  might  be 
described  as  a  boulder  of  sienitic  granite,  weighing  some 
seven  tons,  and  the  theory  which  has  been  advanced  for  its 
being  upon  the  sandy  shores  at  Plymouth  is  that  it  was 
placed  there  by  some  prehistoric  upheaval  or  by  some  un- 
usual action  of  nature. 

In  1775,  when  enthusiasm  over  the  war  of  the  revolution 
was  at  its  height,  it  was  decided  to  move  the  Rock  to  a  more 
suitable  site.  In  attempting  to  pry  it  from  its  foundation  a 
large  portion  was  split  off,  the  splitting  of  course  being  in- 
terpreted at  the  time  as  prophetic  of  the  split  between  the 
colonies  and  the  mother  country.  By  20  yoke  of  oxen  the 
Rock  was  dragged  to  a  spot  in  Town  Square  and  set  at 
the  foot  of  a  liberty  pole  upon  which  was  flying  a  flag  bearing 
the  words,  "Give  me  Liberty  or  give  me  Death."  In  1834 
the  Rock  was  again  moved,  this  time  to  an  area  In  front  of 
Pilgrim  Hall  where  it  was  surrounded  by  an  iron  fence, 
which  bore  the  names  signed  to  the  Compact  of  the  May- 
flower. Another  moving  of  the  Rock  was  undertaken  in 
1880,  when  it  was  removed  to  its  original  site,  —  now  some 
little  distance  from  the  actual  water,  —  cemented  to  its 
original  base,  and  covered  by  a  stone  on  marble  canopy  —  a 
sort  of  baldachino  —  of  a  rather  impressive  design.  Here 
the  rock  rested  until  the  spring  of  1921  when  it  was  moved, 
for  what  will  probably  be  the  last  time,  to  a  site  at  the 
water's  edge,  the  present-day  equivalent  for  its  position 
when  the  Pilgrims  first  stepped  upon  it.  A  suitable  covering 
for  the  famous  Rock  has  been  planned,  which  it  is  hoped  will 
be  built.  In  this  final  setting  the  Rock  may  be  seen  by  visi- 
tors in  much  of  its  original  setting,  washed  by  the  waves 
which  brought  the  Pilgrims,  to  whom  the  Rock  was  indeed 
the  "stepping  stone  to  Hberty." 


30 


OLD     PLYMOUTH 


^ 


THE    PILGRIMS 

AND    THE    "MAYFLOWER" 

IF  Faneuil  Hall,  in  Boston,  be  regarded  as  the  "Cradle 
of  Liberty,"  Plymouth  may  well  lay  claim  to  being  the 
place  where  American  Religious  Liberty  had  its  birth. 
There  were  earlier  settlements  of  Europeans  made  in 
America.  Hendrick  Hudson  and  hi§,  crew,  for  example, 
had  sailed  on  March  20,  1609,  from  Amsterdam,  in  Holland, 
to  found  a  New  Amsterdam  beyond  the  seas,  upon  an  island 
purchased  at  a  paltry  price  from  the  Indians.  Such  a  voy- 
age, however,  and  a  settlement  such  as  New  Amsterdam, 
were  merely  two  details  in  the  history  of  the  commerce  of  a 
commercial  people.  New  Amsterdam  was  founded  as  a 
colony  for  the  purpose  of  trading —  never  as  a  refuge  for 
those  seeking  freedom  from  religious  persecution. 

The  story  of  the  Pilgrims  and  their  wanderings  in  search 
of  liberty  of  conscience  are  well  known,  and  have  been  made 
the  subjects  of  literature  without  end.  The  reformation  of 
the  16th  century,  to  be  sure,  had  freed  England  from  what 
some  thought  to  be  the  religious  despotism  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  but  it  had  resulted  only  in  setting  up  in  England 
the  authority  of  the  Church  of  England  as  by  law  established. 
It  meant  only  the  exchange  of  one  form  of  authority  for  an- 
other, which  seemed  to  men  and  women  in  search  of  wide 
religious  freedom  to  be  equally  intolerable.  The  rule  of 
Rome  had  indeed  been  thrown  off,  only  to  yield  place  to 
that  of  the  Tudor  or  Stuart  sovereigns. 

Migration   From^^^"^  England  to  Holland,  then  the 

17  1  J  *  xj  11  J  refuge  in  Europe  for  those  oppressed 
Eneland  to  Holland  .       ,         ,        r^^  r  • 

tor  the  sake  oi  ireedom  oi  conscience, 

was  the  first  stage  in  the  journeyings  of  the  Pilgrims.  The 
Lowlands,  it  will  be  recalled,  had  been  delivered  from  the 
yoke  of  Spain,  and  into  the  thriving  towns  of  that  corner  of 


32  THE     P  I LGRI  MS 


Europe  were  being  gathered  all  those  who  were  willing  to 
migrate  to  a  new  home  where  religious  peace  and  liberty 
were  to  be  found.  Perhaps  some  of  the  Pilgrims  themselves 
had  witnessed  the  departure  for  America  of  Hudson  and 
his  band,  and  what  more  alluring  to  a  persecuted  people 
than  the  glorious  vision  of  laying,  in  a  virgin  land,  the  foun- 
dations of  a  new  state,  the  very  corner  stone  of  which  should 
be  freedom  of  conscience,  the  liberty  of  each  man  to  worship 
God  in  his  own  way? 

A  journey  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  world,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  17th  century,  was  by  no  means  a  venture  to  be 
lightly  entered  upon,  and  particularly  when  it  involved  the 
migration  of  a  colony  which  had  been  slowly  growing 
during  the  ten  or  twelve  years  of  its  sojourn  in  Holland.  It 
meant  the  securing  of  passage,  upon  a  ship  about  to  make 
such  a  voyage,  for  the  number  of  people  who  were  willing  to 
make  the  venture,  and  the  engaging,  as  well,  of  space  suffi- 
cient for  such  belongings  and  household  possessions  as  must 
be  taken  with  them  to  make  possible  their  establishing  them- 
selves in  a  primeval  wilderness. 

Departure         When  such  an  opportunity  at  last 
f^       A  .  arose,  the  ship  upon  which  necessary 

ror  America  rr       i  ^        -i        ^ 

passage  was  onered  was  to  sail,  not 

from  Holland  but  from  the  English  port  of  Southampton, 
which  involved,  of  course,  at  least  a  brief  stay  in  the  country 
from  which  the  Pilgrims  had  come.  Of  the  102  people  — 
men,  women,  and  children — who  undertook  this  hazard  of 
new  fortunes,  history  relates  that  only  two  —  William  Brew- 
ster and  William  Bradford  —  are  to  be  traced  to  the  original 
migration  from  England  into  Holland.  During  the  years 
of  residence  in  Holland,  however,  the  little  band  had  steadily 
increased  to  about  300  in  number,  so  that  without  entirely 
wiping  out  the  small  congregation  which  they  had  built  up 
at  Leyden,  35  of  its  members  set  out  by  canal  for  Delft 


AND     THE     MAYFLOWER 


S3 


Haven,  the  port  of  Delft,  and  a  ship  called  the  Speedwell  was 
taken  for  England,  where  they  were  joined  by  67  others, 
finally  sailing  from  the  English  seaport,  Plymouth,  since 
after  the  Mayflower  left  Southampton  it  became  necessary 
to  put  into  Plymouth  for  repairs. 

The  history  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the  voyage  of  the  May- 
flower have  been  so  idealized  and  glorified  during  the  past 
300  years,  that  it  is  rather  difficult  now  to  view  them  in 
what  might  be  called  their  "true  perspective."  Shorn  of  the 
romance  which  legend  and  tradition  have  cast  about  it,  the 
migration  of  the  Pilgrims  probably  differed  little,  if  at  all, 
from  the  coming  of  many  little  bands  of  brave  and  loyal  souls 
who  have  come  to  these  shores  during  the  past  few  centuries. 
America,  in  fact,  might  be  said  to  have  been  peopled  by 
countless  such  migrations,  of  which  the  coming  of  the  Pil- 
grims to  Plymouth  was  merely  the  earliest. 


View  from  Beach  Point 

At  the  extreme  right  of  picture  may  be  seen  Captain's  Hill  in  Duxbury 

and  the  shaft  of  the  Stand ish  Monument 


34  THE     PILGRIMS 


The  Mayflower  could  have  been  but  little  larger  than  a 
canal  boat  such  as  are  used  today  upon  the  Erie  Canal,  — 
about  90  feet  long,  some  24  feet  wide,  and  served  by  a  crew 
of  from  15  to  20  men.  Of  her  three  masts  those  fore  and  aft 
have  been  described  as  being  "square  rigged  and  without 
jibs,"  while  the  "mizzen"  mast  carried  a  "lateen"  sail. 
The  body  of  the  vessel  included  a  high  forecastle  and  a  high 
poop  deck,  which  left  the  middle  of  the  ship  low.  History 
describes  the  Mayflower  as  being  "broad  of  beam,  short  in 
the  waist,  low  between  decks  and  not  tight  in  her  upper 
works,"  she  was,  in  other  words,  what  seamen  know  as  a 
"wet"  ship,  and  being  heavily  loaded  was  "low  in  the 
water."  The  crew  occupied  the  quarters  fore,  and  here  were 
stored  such  scanty  possessions  of  different  kinds  as  the  Pil- 
grims were  taking  with  them,  while  the  passengers  —  102  — 
were  placed  aft  "in  bunks  and  cabins." 

Life  on  the  ^^  ^^  rather  difficult  to  understand 

Mayflower  ^^^"^^^  ^^^^  number  of  people  — men, 

women  and  children  —  could  have 
been  crowded  into  the  "bunks  and  cabins"  of  a  vessel  of  the 
Mayflower's  size.  It  is  even  more  difficult  to  understand 
how  existence  could  have  been  maintained  under  such  cir- 
cumstances during  the  long  period  between  the  time  of  their 
leaving  Southampton  in  England  and  the  day  of  their 
arrival  in  Cape  Cod  Bay.  Life  in  America,  during  the  first 
few  years,  was  such  as  to  test  the  mettle  of  even  such  doughty 
men  and  women  as  the  Pilgrims,  and  perhaps  the  hardships 
of  the  voyage  on  the  Mayflower  were  merely  reckoned  as 
part  of  the  price  which  they  were  to  pay  for  the  liberty  which 
awaited  them  beyond  the  seas. 

The  food  for  the  journey  was  simple  in  the  extreme,  and  is 
described  by  historians  of  the  period  as  consisting  of  "bacon, 
hard  tack,  salt  beef,  smoked  herring  and  cheese,  together 
with  ale  or  beer."      For  "luxuries,"  there  were   "butter, 


AND     THE     MAYFLOWER 


35 


(/; 


o 


36 


THE     PILGRIMS 


THE  "MAYFLOWER" 

COMPANY 

John  Carver 

Henry  Sampson 

Resolved  White 

Katherine  Carver, 

Humility  Cooper 

Peregrine  White 

His  wife 

John  Tilley 
His  wife 
Elizabeth  Tilley 

William  Holbeck 

Desire  Minter 

Edward  Thompson 

John  Howland 
Roger  Wilder 

Stephen  Hopkins 

WiUiam  Latham 

Francis  Cooke 

Elizabeth  Hopkins, 

Maid  Servant 

John  Cooke 

His  wife 

Jasper  More 

Thomas  Rogers 

Giles  Hopkins 
Constance  Hopkins 

William  Brewster 

Joseph  Rogers 

Damarius  Hopkins 

Mary  Brewster, 

His  wife 
Love  Brewster 

Thomas  Tinker 
His  wife 

Oceanus  Hopkins 
Edward  Dotey 
Edward  Leister 

Wrestling  Brewster 

His  son 

Richard  More 

John  Rigdale 

Edward  Fuller 

His  Brother 

Alice  Rigdale, 

His  wife 

Edward  Winslow 

His  wife 

Samuel  Fuller 

Elizabeth  Winslow, 

James  Chilton 

John  Turner 

His  wife 
George  Soule 
Elias  Story 

His  wife 
Mary  Chilton 

His  son 
Another  son 

Ellen  More 

Samuel  Fuller 

Francis  Eaton 
Sarah  Eaton, 

William  Bradford 

John  Crackston 

His  wife 

Dorothy  Bradford, 
His  wife 

John  Crackston,  Jr. 

Samuel  Eaton 

Isaac  Allerton 

Miles  Standish 
Rose  Standish, 

Moses  Fletcher 

Mary  Allerton, 

His  wife 

Thomas  Williams 

His  wife 

Deigory  Prist 

Bartholomew  Allerton 

Christopher  Martin 

John  Goodman 

Remember  Allerton 

His  wife 

Edmund  Margeson 

Mary  Allerton 

vSolomon  Power 

Richard  Britteridge 

John  Hooke 

John  Langemore 

Richard  Clarke 

Richard  Warren 

William  Mullins 

Richard  Gardner 
Gilbert  Winslow 

John  Billington 

Alice  Mullins, 

Peter  Browne 

Eleanor  Billington, 

His  wife 
John  Billington 

His  wife 
Joseph  Mullins 
Robert  Carter 

John  Alden 
Thomas  English 
John  Allerton 

Francis  Billington 

Priscilla  Mullins 

William  Trevore 

Edward  TiUey 

William  White 

m.. 

iL\y 

Ann  Tilley, 

Susanna  White, 

William  Butten, 

His  wife 

His  wife 

Who  died  at  sea 

AND     THE     MAYFLOWER  37 

vinegar,  mustard,  lemons,  and  prunes,"  not  to  mention 
"gin,  brandy  and  Dutch  schnapps."  Such  cooking  as  was 
done  at  all  was  over  a  fire  set  upon  a  small  area  filled  with 
sand,  on  the  Mayflower's  open  deck,  but  little  cooking  seems 
to  have  been  attempted,  and  probably  for  the  most  part  the 
food  was  eaten  cold;  and  there  were  but  two  meals  each 
day,  for  food  was  precious  and  must  be  used  with  care. 

The  relations  which  existed  between  the  captain  and  the 
Pilgrims  were  no  doubt  strained  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  Mayflower's  voyage.  Since  the  Pilgrims  were  unable  to 
afl^ord  the  cost  of  chartering  a  ship  for  the  expedition,  the 
journey  was  "financed"  by  the  Merchant  Adventurers, 
who  expected  to  derive  a  certain  profit  from  the  merchan- 
dise from  America,  such  as  salt  fish,  shingles  and  clapboards, 
which  the  colonists  would  send  to  England  on  future  trips  of 
the  Mayflower.  The  captain  probably  regarded  his  pas- 
sengers as  hardly  a  profitable  company,  and  life  under  such 
circumstances,  and  for  so  long  a  period,  doubtless  involved 
more  than  a  little  friction.  It  has  long  been  maintained  that 
this  friction  resulted  in  the  captain's  purposely  steering  the 
Mayflower  away  from  the  port  to  which  she  was  to  sail,  — 
the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  or  the  Delaware,  —  which  ended 
in  the  Pilgrims  being  steered  into  what  we  know  today  as 
Cape  Cod  Bay.  The  charter  under  which  the  settlement 
was  to  be  made  was  to  be  within  the  domain  of  the  Virginia 
Company;  New  England  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of  an 
entirely  different  company. 

A  ^  ^  { ,7  o  1    ;  ^        Under  these  circumstances    it   may 
r         r  H  R  have  been  felt  by  some  of  the  leaders 

of  the  Pilgrims  that  what  had  been 
attained  was  probably  the  best  that  could  be  had,  while  others 
maintained  that  Heaven  had  brought  about  the  event  and 
that  Providence  was  directing  their  pilgrimage,  particularly 
as  the  bleak  shores  about  Cape  Cod  Bay,  even  in  November, 
seemed  to  be  not  wholly  without  certain  very  solid  advan- 


38  THE     P  I  LGRI  M  S 


tages.  The  "Compact,"  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the  May- 
flower on  November  11,  1620,  as  she  rode  at  anchor,  and  to 
which  were  signed  the  names  of  the  Pilgrims,  speaks  of  their 
desire  of  planting  "the  first  colonic  in  the  Northerne  parts 
of  Virginia,"  but  the  Mayflower's  captain  refused  to  take 
them  thither,  and  their  settlement  was  accordingly  made 
upon  the  shore  near  "Cape  Codd." 

With  an  apparently  endless  stretch  of  coast  to  choose 
from,  the  matter  of  selecting  the  spot  most  favorable  for  a 
permanent  settlement  was  naturally  a  matter  of  the  first 
importance,  and  not  lightly  to  be  regarded.  For  a  month 
the  neighboring  coast  was  explored  by  parties  which  put  out 
from  the  Mayflower  in  the  ship's  shallop ;  different  coves  and 
bays  were  explored  and  their  relative  advantages  probably 
discussed,  but  the  sandy  beaches  and  shallow  water  about 
Provincetown,  where  they  first  landed,  seemed  to  be  hardly 
adapted  for  the  use  of  even  such  vessels  as  the  Pilgrims  were 
apt  to  employ.  Perhaps  it  was  the  excellence  of  the  harbor 
which  led  the  Pilgrims  to  select  the  spot  where  they  reared 
their  settlement.  Stripped  of  all  the  romance  which  tradi- 
tion has  cast  about  it,  the  "  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,"  which 
is  recorded  as  taking  place  at  Plymouth  on  December  21, 
1620,  was  not  the  landing  of  the  full  body  but  the  landing  of 
the  exploring  party  which  had  been  cruising  around  the  bay, 
and  which  had  come  again  to  examine  anew  the  shores  of 
what  we  know  as  Plymouth  Harbor,  and  to  select  one  of  the 
several  favorable  spots  which  had  already  been  discovered 
and  discussed. 

This  exploring  party  was  made  up  of  "ten  of  their  princi- 
pal men,"  according  to  Bradford,  whose  names,  as  given  in 
"Mourt's  Relation,"  were  Captain  Myles  Standish,  Gover- 
nor Carver,  William  Bradford,  Edward  Winslow,  John  Til- 
ley,  Edward  Tilley,  John  Rowland,  from  Leyden;  with 
Richard  Warren,  Stephen  Hopkins  and  Edward  Dotey  from 
London,  and  also  two  of  the  Pilgrim's  seamen,  John  Aller- 


AND     THE     MAYFLOWER  3^ 


The  Compact  Signed  on  board  the  "May- 
flower," Nov.  11th  (Nov.  21st, 
New  Style),  1620 

"In  the  name  of  God,  amen,  we  whose  names 
are  underwritten,  the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread 
soveraigne  Lord,  King  James,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  of  Great  Britain,  Franc  and  Ireland  king, 
defender  of  the  faith,  etc.,  having  undertaken, 
for  the  glorie  of  God,  and  advancem.ente  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  honor  of  our  king  and  coun- 
trie,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colonic  in  the 
Northerne  parts  of  Virginia,  doe  by  these  pres- 
ents solemnly  and  mutually  in  the  presence  of 
God,  and  one  of  another,  covenant  and  combine 
ourselves  together  into  a  civill  body  politick,  for 
our  better  ordering  and  preservation  and  fur- 
therence  of  the  ends  aforesaid;  and  by  virtue 
hereof  to  enacte,  constitute  and  frame  such  just 
and  equall  laws,  ordenances,  acts,  constitutions 
and  offices,  from  tim.e  to  time  as  shall  be  thought 
most  meete  and  convenient  for  the  general  good 
of  the  colonic,  unto  which  we  prornise  all  due 
submission  and  obedience.  In  witness  whereof 
we  have  hereunto  subscribed  our  names  at  Cap- 
Codd  the  11  of  November,  in  the  year  of  the 
raigne  of  our  soveraigne  lord.  King  James  of 
England,  Franc  and  Ireland,  the  eighteenth,  and 
of  Scotland  the  fiftv-fourth,  ANO  DOM  1620." 


40  THE     P  I LGRI  M  S 


ton  and  Thomas  English.  Along  with  them  Captain  Jones 
of  the  Mayflower  sent  three  of  his  seamen,  with  a  mate  and  a 
pilot  and  the  master  gunner  of  the  ship,  making  18  in  all  — 
12  of  the  Pilgrims  and  6  of  the  Mayflower's  crew.  The  cir- 
cumstances of  this  landing  are  also  fully  described  in 
"Mourt's  Relation."  The  exploring  party  having  landed 
upon  the  Rock,  "marched  also  into  the  land  and  found  di- 
vers cornfields  and  little  running  brooks,  a  place  very  good 
for  situation.  So  we  returned  to  our  ship  again  with  good 
news  to  the  rest  of  the  people,  which  did  much  comfort  their 
hearts." 

„    ,.     .  T-     1       ^-  It  would  seem  that  although 

Freliminary  Explorations  ^,        i  u      ^    t^i  ^i 

•^       ^  the  shores    about    Plymouth 

Harbor  had  finally  been  decided  upon  as  the  site  of  the  Pil- 
grim's settlement,  the  precise  spot  had  yet  to  be  agreed 
upon.  Nevertheless,  the  Mayflower  sailed  into  Plymouth 
Harbor  on  December  26,  1620,  and  dropped  anchor  not  far 
from  the  shore,  not  to  be  disturbed  until  the  time  came  for 
her  return  to  England  in  the  spring. 

To  some  of  the  men  who  had  examined  the  several  avail- 
able sites  in  Plymouth  Harbor  it  seemed  wise  to  select 
Clark's  Island,  where  they  had  spent  one  Sunday,  as  the 
place  for  the  settlement.  It  was  surrounded  by  water,  they 
argued,  and  could  therefore  be  defended  more  easily  from 
the  attacks  of  the  Indians,  which  were  always  possible.  To 
others  it  seemed  that  the  most  suitable  place  for  a  permanent 
settlement  would  be  the  spot  where  Jones  River  emptied  its 
waters  into  the  bay.  "  So  in  the  morning,  after  we  had  called 
on  God  for  direction,  we  came  to  this  resolution,  to  go  pres- 
ently ashore  againe ;  and  to  take  a  better  view  of  two  places 
which  we  thought  most  fitting  for  us ;  for  we  could  not  now 
take  time  for  further  search  or  consideration,  our  vituals 
being  much  spent,  especially  our  beer,  and  it  being  now  the 
19th  of  December  (old  style).  After  our  landing  and  visit- 
ing the  places,  so  well  as  we  could,  we  came  to  a  conclusion, 


AND     THE     MAYFLOWER 


41 


by  most  voices,  to  set  on  a  high  ground  where  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  land  cleared,  and  hath  been  planted  with  corn 
three  or  four  years  ago;  and  there  is  a  very  sweet  brook 
round  under  the  hillside,  and  many  delicate  springs  of  as 
good  water  as  could  be  drunk,  and  where  we  could  harbor 
our  shallops  and  boats  exceedingly  well;  and  in  this  brook 
fish  in  their  season ;  on  the  further  side  of  the  river  also  much 
corn  ground  cleared.  In  one  field  is  a  great  hill  on  which  we 
point  to  make  a  platform,  and  plant  our  ordnance,  which  will 
command  all  around  about.  From  there  we  may  see  into 
the  bay,  and  far  into  the  sea,  and  we  may  see  thence  Cape 
Cod.  Our  greatest  labor  will  be  the  fetching  of  our  wood, 
which  is  half  a  quarter  of  an  English  mile;  but  there  is 
enough  so  far  off.    What  people  inhabit  here  we  yet  know 


^«- 


Pilgrims  Watching  the  Mayflower  Leave  Plymouth  Harbor 
Bound  for  England,  April  16,  1621 


42  THE     P  I  LG  RI  M  S 


not,  for  as  yet  we  have  seen  none.  So  there  we  made  our 
rendezvous,  and  a  place  for  some  of  our  people,  about  20, 
resolving  in  the  morning  to  come  all  ashore  and  to  build 
houses." 

All  this  agrees  with  what  the  present  site  of  Plymouth 
must  have  been  in  1620.  The  ''brook"  and  at  least  one  of 
the  "many  delicate  springs"  yet  exist,  and  the  "great  hill" 
upon  which  the  Pilgrims  pointed  "to  make  a  platform" 
undoubtedly  refers  to  Burial  Hill  where  they  soon  built 
the  "Old  Fort,"  and  from  Plymouth  one  may  still  "see 
thence  Cape  Cod." 

Captain  Jones  of  the  Mayflower  was  anxious  to  sail  for 
England.  The  voyage  to  America  had  undoubtedly  been 
for  him  a  rather  unprofitable  venture,  and  it  would  seem  to 
have  been,  from  the  first,  a  series  of  disagreements  between 
captain  and  crew  on  the  one  hand  and  the  102  Pilgrims  upon 
the  other.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  relations  towards  the 
end  of  the  period  seem  to  have  been  more  agreeable.  Cap- 
tain Jones  seems  to  have  permitted  unlimited  use  of  the 
Mayflower's  small  shallop  for  much  exploring,  which  must 
necessarily  be  done,  of  the  numerous  coves  and  inlets  along 
the  coast  of  Cape  Cod  Bay,  and,  as  already  said,  had  sent 
the  men  of  his  crew  to  aid  in  the  exploring;  he  even  offered  to 
take  back  to  England  any  of  the  Pilgrims  who  cared  to  re- 
turn, but  this  offer  seems  to  have  been  unanimously  de- 
cHned. 

Landint^  of         With  the  site  of  the  settlement  now 
,       p. I     .  determined,  and  with  the  day  of  the 

Mayflower's  departure  for  England 
close  at  hand,  it  became  necessary  in  the  spring  for  the  entire 
Pilgrim  company  to  take  leave  of  the  ship  and  to  establish 
themselves  in  their  rude  cabins,  already  well  under  way  upon 
the  shore.  This  actual  landing  of  the  company  would  seem 
therefore  to  correspond  more  literally  to  the  idea  which  most 
people  have  of  the   "Landing  of  the  Pilgrims"   than  the 


AND     THE     MAYFLOWER  43 


landing  of  the  exploring  party  which  has  already  been 
mentioned.  This  event,  which  for  centuries  has  engaged 
the  attention  of  painters  of  historical  scenes,  may  be  studied 
in  countless  pictures  everywhere,  not  to  mention  several 
presentments  in  Plymouth  today.  Artists,  quite  naturally, 
are  apt  to  make  strict  and  literal  historical  exactitude  some- 
what subordinate  to  the  requirements  of  a  good  picture, 
but  upon  the  whole  it  may  well  be  agreed  that  in  dealing  with 
this  particular  subject  the  painters  have  taken  few  liberties, 
if  any  at  all.  It  is  recorded,  and  generally  believed,  that 
John  Alden  was  the  first  of  the  Pilgrims  to  step  from  the 
shallop  upon  the  plain  gray  boulder,  which  perhaps  seemed 
to  be  the  obvious  spot  upon  which  to  land,  and  that  he  next 
assisted  Mary  Chilton  to  plant  her  foot  upon  the  Rock.  The 
name  of  Alden  is  not  unknown  in  the  annals  of  Plymouth 
chivalry,  and  it  cannot  be  that  he  would  have  permitted 
Miss  Mary  Chilton  to  step  unaided  from  a  rocking  boat 
to  terra  firma.  After  them  there  disembarked  the  others  of 
the  company,  and  it  may  well  be  that  many  other  trips  of 
the  shallop  were  necessary  before  all  of  the  Pilgrims  and  their 
possessions  had  been  safely  and  finally  landed. 

John  Alden,  who  was  the  first  of  the  Pilgrims  to  step  upon 
the  Rock,  according  to  general  belief,  when  the  general  com- 
pany of  the  Mayflower's  travelers  took  permanent  possession 
of  Plymouth,  is  also  known  to  fame  through  another  tradi- 
tion. It  will  be  recalled  that  when  the  Pilgrims  undertook 
the  building  of  the  first  log  cabins,  which  were  to  be  their 
homes,  all  single  men  were  expected  to  'join  themselves"  to 
families,  that  the  number  of  houses  built  need  not  be  larger 
than  was  necessary.  John  Alden  therefore  joined  the  house- 
hold of  Captain  Myles  Standish,  and  continued  to  live  with 
them  until  his  marriage,  which  occurred  in  the  early  part  of 
1621. 

Within  a  very  short  time  after  the  death  of  Mrs.  Standish, 
who  w^as  evidently  among  those  members  of  Plymouth  Col- 


44  THE     PILGRIMS 


ony  who  died  during  the  first  winter,  the  Captain  was  led  to 
suppose  that  if  he  could  procure  the  hand  of  the  lovely  Miss 
Priscilla  MuUins,  the  daughter  of  Mr.  William  MulHns,  one 
of  the  first  comers  and  a  worthy  man,  the  breach  in  his 
family  would  be  happily  healed. 

"Captain  Standish,  therefore,  according  to  the  manner  of 
his  times,  sent  to  ask  of  the  father,  permission  to  visit  his 
daughter.  The  person  chosen  by  the  Captain  to  perform 
this  delicate  embassy  was  Mr.  John  Alden,  then  an  inmate 
of  his  family,  and  who,  although  a  Pilgrim,  was  young  and 
comely.  The  father  did  not  object,  as  he  might  well  have 
done,  on  account  of  the  recency  of  the  Captain's  bereave- 
ment, but  readily  gave  his  consent,  saying  however,  that  the 
young  lady  must  first  be  consulted.  The  damsel  having 
been  called  into  the  apartment,  Mr.  Alden,  who  is  said  to 
have  been  of  a  most  excellent  form,  and  of  a  fair  and  ruddy 
complexion,  arose  and  in  a  courteous  and  prepossessing 
manner,  delivered  his  errand."  The  young  lady  listened 
with  respectful  attention  and  at  last,  after  considerable 
pause,  fixing  her  eyes  on  him,  replied  with  perfect  naivete, 
"Prithee,  John,  why  do  you  not  speak  for  yourself?" 

Tradition  fails  to  record  the  means  which  Mr.  John  Alden 
employed  to  explain  the  situation  to  his  constituent,  who 
had  every  reason  for  resentment,  but  it  is  chronicled  in  Ply- 
mouth history  that  he  rode  to  his  nuptials  on  the  back  of  a 
bull,  and  that  he  afterwards  returned  to  his  home  with  Mrs. 
Alden  seated  on  the  bull,  which  her  husband  led  by  a  rope 
fastened  to  a  ring  in  the  bull's  nose.  John  Alden  is  said  to 
have  been  the  last  member  of  the  Mayflower  company  to 
die,  but  that  distinction  is  also  claimed  by  some  for  Mr.  John 
Rowland.  Considerable  disagreement  exists  among  histor- 
ians regarding  dates,  and  even  sometimes  regarding  names, 
and  some  historical  questions  defy  settlement. 

Such,  in  brief,  were  the  migrations  of  the  Pilgrims  and 
their  search  for  religious  freedom.    It  may  well  be  that  they 


AND     THE     MAYFLOWER  45 


■Priscilla"   (From  the  painting  by  G.  H.  Boughton) 


46  THE     P  ILGRI  M  S 


compared  their  wanderings  to  the  journeyings  of  ancient 
Israel  and,  like  the  Israelites,  they  found  their  faith  justified 
by  the  results. 

Vicissitudes  ^^  might  be    supposed   that  a  relic 

f  ih    Ro  k  ^^    important    as    Plymouth    Rock 

would  have  been  possessed  of  a  fame 
of  such  continuity  that  questions  regarding  its  identity  — 
or  shall  we  say  its  authenticity?  —  would  not  be  possible. 
But  prophets  are  said  to  be  not  without  honor  save  in  their 
own  countries,  and  if  the  plain  and  somewhat  disappointing 
truth  must  be  told,  it  must  be  confessed  that  Plymouth  has 
not  always  held  the  rock  in  the  high  veneration  which  it 
deserves.  As  the  actual  shore  line  shifted  in  the  course  of 
time,  and  the  Rock  came  to  be  farther  and  farther  from  the 
water's  edge,  popular  interest,  it  would  seem,  was  not 
strong  enough  to  save  the  famous  Rock  from  something 
closely  akin  to  profanation.  If  it  w^as  not  actually  built 
upon  it  was  at  least  used  as  a  sort  of  stepping  stone  for  a 
structure  of  some  kind,  and  in  view  of  all  these  conditions 
it  is  perhaps  hardly  to  be  wondered  at  that  in  the  course  of 
time  there  should  grow  up  a  tradition  of  skepticism  as  to  the 
Rock's  actual  identity. 

All  these  doubts  w^ere  disproved  and  dispelled  by  Elder 
Thomas  Faunce.  Having  been  born  in  1647,  and  being  the 
son  of  John  Faunce,  who  came  to  Plymouth  in  1623  in  the 
*'Ann,"  he  must  have  been  raised  in  the  actual  company  of 
many  who  had  themselves  landed  upon  the  Rock  from  the 
Mayflower's  shallop.  At  the  age  of  95,  when  he  heard  that 
the  Rock  which  had  been  venerated  from  his  youth  was 
about  to  be  disturbed,  he  visited  the  spot,  related  the  his- 
tory of  the  Rock  as  it  had  been  told  to  him  by  his  father  and 
numerous  members  of  the  Pilgrim  company,  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  many  witnesses  declared  it  to  be  the  identical  Rock 
upon  which  the  Forefathers  had  landed  in  1620.    The  vicis- 


AND     THE     MAYFLOWER 


47 


situdes  of  the  Rock  have  been  described  in  another  part  of 
this  little  Guide,  and  the  visitor  who  looks  upon  it  may  well 
hope  that  it  will  be  forever  treasured  and  venerated  in 
Plymouth  in  memory  of  the  Pilgrims  of  whom  it  is  the  most 
famous  relic. 


Proposed  Setting  for  the  Rock  at  the  Water's  Edge 
Designed  by  McKim,  Mead  &  White,  Architects 


48 


THE    PILGRIMS 


THE     PILGRIMS' 
SETTLEMENT 

"The  toils  we  bore 

Your  ease  have  wrought; 
We  sowed  in  tears, 

In  joy  you  reap. 
That  birthright  we  so  dearly  bought, 

Here  guard,  till  you  with  us  shall  sleep." 

THE  departure  of  the  Mayflower  upon  her  return  trip 
to  England  in  the   spring   of  1621,  which  meant  for 
the    Pilgrims    the    breaking     of    the    last    remaining 
link  which  bound  them  to  the  old  world,  saw  them  actively 
at  work  building  up  a  settlement  in  the  new. 

Plymouth  Harbor  is  protected  upon  one  side  by  a  natural 
sea  wall  of  sand  which  is  known  as  Plymouth  Beach,  and 


The  John  Howland  House     (Built  in  1666) 


50     THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


The  Gen.  John  Winslow  House 


upon  the  other  by  another  sea  wall,  somewhat  similar,  so 
that  the  harbor  is  fully  guarded  from  the  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  known  as  Cape  Cod  Bay.  Between  these  two 
extended  and  sheltering  arms  the  Mayflower  had  found  a 
safe  anchorage  as  she  had  passed  the  point  of  Duxbury 
Beach  known  as  the  "Gurnet."  Just  inside  the  Gurnet  is 
Clark's  Island,  upon  which  one  of  the  bands  of  exploring 
Pilgrims  landed  one  Sunday  and  gave  thanks  to  God  for 
His  guidance.  Across  Cape  Cod  Bay,  upon  clear  days,  it 
is  possible  to  see  the  tall  granite  monument  at  Province- 
town,  at  the  extreme  end  of  Cape  Cod,  which  was  built  in 
1912  to  commemorate  the  first  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 


The  Beginnings 
of    the    Colony 


The  topography  of  Plymouth  itself 
is  easily  described.  Near  the  Rock, 
which  lay  at  the  water's  edge,  there 

emptied  a  little  stream  which  is  still  known  as  Town  Brook; 

just  ahead  was  the  rather  slight  eminence  which  soon  became 


THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT     51 


52 


THE    PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


known  as  Cole's  Hill,  and  farther  along  was  the  steeper 
height  which  is  even  yet  called  Burial  Hill,  and  which  was 
the  place  mentioned  on  another  page  where  the  Pilgrims 
"pointed  to  make  a  platform  and  plant  their  ordnance," 
while  not  far  away  there  is  at  least  one  of  the  "many  deli- 
cate springs  of  as  good  water  as  can  be  drunk." 


Cole's  Hill  and  the  Plymouth  Rock  House 


With  the  settlement  of  any  town  which  is  being  made 
from  a  virgin  wilderness,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  obviously  to 
lay  out  a  street;  so  leading  directly  from  the  harbor,  up 
toward  Burial  Hill,  the  settlers  staked  out  what  was  known 
as  First  Street,  but  later  on  changed  to  Leyden  Street,  in 
memory,  no  doubt,  of  the  hospitable  town  in  Holland  from 
which  they  had  come.  Along  First  Street,  upon  both  sides, 
there  were  laid  out  lots  which  were  distributed  among  the 
different  families,  the  lots  upon  the  left,  as  one  leaves  the 


THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENI     53 


54     THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


harbor,  extending  down  to  the  edges  of  Town  Brook.    These 
lots  were  originally  called  "meersteads." 

Mourt's  Relation  supplies  an  interesting  record: 
"Thursday,  the  28th  (old  style)  of  December,  so  many  as 
could  went  to  work  on  the  hill,  where  we  proposed  to  build 
our  platform  for  our  ordnance,  and  which  doth  command  all 
the  plain  and  the  bay,  and  from  whence  we  may  see  far  into 
the  sea,  and  might  be  easier  impaled,  having  two  rows  of 
houses  and  a  fair  street.  So  in  the  afternoon  we  went  to 
measure  out  the  grounds;  and  first  we  took  notice  how  many 
families  there  were,  willing  all  single  men  that  had  no  wives 
to  join  with  some  family,  as  they  thought  fit,  so  that  we 
might  build  fewer  houses;  which  done,  and  we  reduced  them 
to  19  families.  To  greater  families  we  alloted  larger- plots; 
to  every  person  half  a  pole  in  breadth  and  3  in  length,  and 
so  lots  were  cast  where  every  man  should  lie;  which  was 
done  and  staked  out."  This  was  the  beginning  of  what  is 
now  Leyden  Street,  and  in  old  records  of  Plymouth  which 
are  kept  at  the  Registry  of  Deeds,  and  described  more  fully 
in  another  chapter,  there  may  still  be  seen  a  rough  map  of 
the  original  survey  where  each  lot  is  marked  with  the  name 
of  one  of  the  Pilgrim  families.  The  plot  "alloted"  to  Gov- 
ernor Bradford  is  shown  as  fully  four  times  the  size  of  any 
of  the  others,  perhaps  as  a  recognition  of  his  exalted  position. 

The  Common  House  The  first  structure  to  be  built,  the 
"Common  House,"  was  apparently 
built  before  the  entire  company  left  the  Mayflower;  as 
its  name  implies,  it  was  a  general  shelter  and  in- 
tended to  be  used  only  until  a  house  could  be  built  for 
each  family  on  its  plot.  All  of  these  early  Pilgrim  buildings, 
if  one  may  accept  the  testimony  of  old  drawings  and  pic- 
tures of  various  sorts,  were  very  much  alike,  differing  only 
in  size.  They  were  made  of  logs  which  were  had  from  trees 
felled  in  the  nearest  forest,  and  the  spaces  between  the  logs 


THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT     55 


Original  Allotments  on  Town  Brook  known  as  "  Meersteads  " 


were  filled  with  clay,  which  was  perhaps  made  into  a  form 
which  somewhat  resembled  plaster;  the  floors  of  the  houses 
were  also  of  logs,  made  as  nearly  smooth  as  possible,  and  the 
roofs  were  of  thatch.  Even  the  Common  House  and  the 
Old  Fort  were  of  this  description,  though  larger  than  the 
houses  occupied  by  the  "19  families." 


The  First  Year 
in  Plymouth 


It  soon  became  evident,  however, 
that  any  hardships  and  privations 
which  had  been  endured  by  the  Pil- 
grims during  the  voyage  from  England,  or  upon  the  May- 
flower as  she  lay  in  Cape  Cod  Bay,  were  merely  the  begin- 
ning of  the  many  trials  which  were  to  come  to  them.  There 
was,  first  of  all,  the  scarcity  of  food,  for  although  the  forests 
supplied  game,  and  the  waters  of  Cape  Cod  Bay  then,  as 
now,  abounded  in  fish  of  various  kinds,  it  took  months  to 


56     THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


The  Myles  Standish  Monument  and  Grave  and  House. 
House  erected  by  His  Son  in  1666,  Captain's  Hill,  Duxbury 


THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT     57 


raise  corn  from  which  to  make  bread,  and  food  of  other  kinds 
which  they  had  brought  from  England  had  either  run  dan- 
gerously low  or  was  wholly  exhausted. 

Infinitely  worse  than  the  trials  which  came  to  them  in 
other  forms  was  the  great  loss  which  came  by  reason  of  the 
deaths  of  so  many  of  the  little  company.  The  disease  known 
as  scurvy,  which  for  ages  has  been  the  bane  of  armies  and 
emigrants,  and  also  of  people  in  other  classes,  broke  out  not 
long  after  the  Pilgrims  had  reached  America.  This  disease 
is  said  to  be  the  result  of  lack  of  sufficient  food,  and  parti- 
cularly of  lack  of  proper  sanitation.  In  the  early  Pilgrim 
records  there  appears  abundant  evidence  of  the  small 
amount  of  food  available  during  the  Mayflower  voyage  and 
for  some  time  thereafter.  It  is  not  difficult  to  picture  the 
conditions,  both  on  shipboard  and  in  Plymouth,  which 
were  the  result  of  overcrowding  so  large  a  company  into 
such  small  spaces  as  the  Mayflower's  bunks  and  cabins,  or 
the  Common  House  afforded. 

Due  to  the  ravages  of  this  disease,  fully  one-half  of  the 
Pilgrims  died  during  their  first  winter  in  Plymouth.  The 
old  chronicles  say  that  with  so  many  deaths,  and  the  con- 
stant progress  of  the  disease,  there  were  at  times  scarcely 
enough  left  to  bury  the  dead  and  nurse  the  sick.  Early 
days  in  Plymouth,  and  particularly  the  hardships  and  suf- 
ferings of  the  Pilgrims  during  their  first  winter  in  the 
colony,  have  been  vividly  described  by  a  number  of  early 
writers.  After  telling  of  some  of  their  vicissitudes  during  the 
voyage  of  the  Mayflower  to  America,  and  even  after  the 
arrival  of  the  vessel  in  Cape  Cod  Bay,  one  narrator  goes  on 
to  tell  of  the  rapid  dwindling  of  the  number  of  the  Pil- 
grims. During  March  "13  of  our  company  died,  and  in  3 
months  past  dies  half  our  company  —  the  greatest  part  in 
the  depth  of  winter,  wanting  houses  and  other  comforts, 
being  afflicted  with  the  scurvy  and  other  diseases  which  their 
long  voyage  and  unaccommodate  condition  brought  upon 


58     THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


them,  so  that  there  die  sometimes  2  or  3  a  day.  Of  100  per- 
sons scarce  50  remaining,  the  Hving  scarce  able  to  bury  the 
dead ;  the  well  not  sufficient  to  tend  the  sick,  there  being  in 
their  time  of  greatest  distress,  but  6  or  7,  who  spare  no 
pains  to  help  them." 

Burials  were  many  on  Cole's  Hill, 
near  the  Rock,  but  little  evidence  of 
the  actual  conditions  was  allowed  to  appear.  The  graves 
of  the  Pilgrims  were  hastily  leveled  and  left  unmarked,  that 
the  Indians,  noting  the  rapidly  growing  number  of  mounds, 
might  not  guess  the  corresponding  dwindling  in  the  number 
of  the  colonists —  "lest  they  should  count  the  graves,  and 
see  how  many  already  have  perished."  These  early  Pil- 
grim graves,  being  unmarked,  were  quickly  lost,  and  several 
times  during  the  past  three  centuries  necessary  excavations 
on  Cole's  Hill,  or  even  the  washing  away  of  portions  of  the 
bank  by  heavy  rains,  have  brought  to  view  the  poor  bones  of 
these  brave  pioneers. 

"Each  in  his  narrow  cell  forever  laid, 
The.  .  .  .Forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep." 

Relations  With      While   hostilities   with   the    Indians 

^ ,       T     J  •  seemed  often  about  to  break  out,  no 

the  Indians  i  ,     r  i 

important  trouble  from  that  source 

was  experienced  during  the  earliest  days.  Various  treaties 
were  made  at  different  times  with  the  chiefs,  and  the  Pil- 
grims well  knew  the  necessity  of  propitiating  and  dealing 
fairly  with  these  important  and  powerful  neighbors.  Per- 
haps, too,  the  fact  that  the  Pilgrims  well  understood  the 
value  of  ''preparedness"  had  much  to  do  with  their  living 
in  peace,  for  while  hoping  for  the  best,  the  early  Governors 
fully  believed  in  being  prepared  for  the  worst.  The  Old 
Fort  on  Burial  Hill,  among  the  first  of  the  buildings  erected 
in  Plymouth,  was  not  intended  to  be  merely  an  ornament, 


THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT     59 


and  the  men  of  Plymouth  were  well  trained  in  the  methods 
of  defense,  should  necessity  for  their  use  arise. 

"When  they  met  for  service  on  Sundays  or  holidays  they 
assembled  by  beat  of  drum,  each  with  musket  or  firelock,  in 
front  of  the  Captain's  door.  Then  in  order,  three  abreast, 
led  by  a  Sergeant  and  without  drum  beat,  they  march  up 
the  hill  to  the  Fort.  Behind  come  the  Governor,  on  his 
right  the  Preacher  with  his  cloak  and  on  his  left  the  Captain 
with  his  side  arms.  And  they  are  constantly  on  guard, 
day  and  night."  Even  the  prayers  of  the  Pilgrims  were  said 
with  their  ears  ready  for  the  war-whoop  of  the  Indians,  and 
with  their  muskets  within  easy  reach. 

In  addition  to  the  Fort  which  was  built  during  the  early 
Plymouth  days  upon  Burial  Hill,  a  brick  Watch  Tower  was 
built  in  1643,  probably  because  from  a  tower  built  upon  an 
eminence  as  lofty  as  the  Hill  the  country  could  be  surveyed 
for  many  miles  in  every  direction.  In  the  records  of 
Plymouth,  on  September  23,  1643,  it  is  noted :  "  It  is  agreed 
upon  the  whole  that  there  shall  be  a  watch  house  forthwith, 
built  of  brick,  and  that  Mr.  Grimes  will  sell  us  the  brick  at 
eleven  shillings  a  thousand."  No  earlier  mention  of  the  use 
of  brick  in  Plymouth  is  known,  and  perhaps  about  that  time 
brickyards  and  kilns  were  being  introduced;  the  Pilgrims 
were  no  doubt  accustomed  to  the  use  of  brick  as  a  building 
material,  for  during  centuries  it  had  been  much  used  in 
England,  while  in  Holland  it  had  been  for  ages  —  and  is  to- 
day —  one  of  the  chief  materials  for  building.  While  this 
brick  "watch  house"  has  long  ago  disappeared,  its  brick 
foundations  still  exist  upon  Burial  Hill,  a  foot  or  two  below 
the  surface,  and  were  discovered  years  ago  in  digging  a 
grave.  Not  far  away  is  the  hearthstone  upon  which  the  Pil- 
grims built  their  watch  fires. 

Another  structure  of  defense  was  built  upon  Burial  Hill  in 
1676,  this  being  a  fortification  "with  palisadoes  ten  and  one- 
half  feet  high,  with  3  pieces  of  ordnance  planted  on  it." 


60     THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


With  Nathaniel  Southworth  a  contract  was  made  to  build  a 
watch  house  "16  feet  in  length,  12  feet  in  breadth,  and  8 
feet  stud,  to  be  walled  with  boards,  and  to  have  2  floors,  the 
upper  floor  to  be  6  feet  above  the  tower,  to  batten  the  walls 
and  make  a  small  pair  of  stairs  in  it,  the  roof  to  be  covered 
with  shingles,  and  a  chimney  to  be  built  in  it.  For  the  said 
work  he  is  to  have  8  pounds,  either  in  money  or  other  pay 
equivalent."  Some  historians  think  that  this  latter  watch 
tower  of  wood  was  a  sort  of  super-structure  built  upon  the 
brick  watch  tower  which  has  just  been  described,  and  which 
in  1676  would  have  been  33  years  old  —  not  too  old,  surely, 
to  have  been  still  useful. 

When  war  with  the  powerful  Narragansett  tribe  once 
seemed  certain,  their  chief  sent  messengers  to  Governor 
Bradford  bearing  a  rattlesnake  skin  wrapped  about  a 
bunch  of  arrows.  Friendly  Indians  interpreted  the  message 
for  the  Pilgrims  as  signifying  a  declaration  of  war.  The  mes- 
sengers from  the  Narragansetts  were  sent  back  by  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Plymouth  Colony  with  the  same  rattlesnake  skin 
filled  with  gunpowder  and  ball.  Thus  was  answered  a 
threat  of  a  breach  of  the  public  peace ;  a  prompt  acceptance 
of  a  challenge  from  lawlessness,  such  as  later  Governors  in 
Massachusetts  have  not  been  slow  to  follow. 

During  the  first  year  of  their  occupation  of  Plymouth  the 
leaders  of  the  colony  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  neigh- 
boring tribe  of  the  Wampanoags,  who  were  represented  by 
their  sachem  Massasoit,  and  the  treaty  was  kept  faithfully 
for  more  than  half  a  century.  Not  until  "  King  Phihp,"  the 
son  and  successor  of  Massasoit,  went  upon  the  warpath,  did 
the  Indians  of  Massachusetts  Bay  commit  any  serious  de- 
predation at  Plymouth. 

Plymouth  After     Some  years  later  —  in  1627  —  Isaac 

Seven  Years      DeRaiseres,  an  officer  belonging  to 

the  Dutch  colony,  New  Amsterdam 

(New  York),  paid  a  visit  to  Plymouth  and  found  a  settle- 


THE     PILGRIMS'      SETTLEMENT     61 


62     THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


ment  which  agrees  well  with  what  one  might  expect  to  see 
after  a  period  of  seven  years  of  development.  In  a  letter  to 
Holland  the  visitor  thus  describes  Plymouth  at  that  time : 

"New  Plymouth  lies  in  the  slope  of  a  hill  stretching  east 
toward  the  sea  coast,  with  a  broad  street  about  a  cannon 
shot  of  800  (yards)  long,  leading  down  the  hill,  with  a  (street) 
crossing  in  the  middle.  The  houses  are  constructed  of  hewn 
planks,  with  gardens  also  enclosed  behind  and  at  the  sides 


The  Russell  Memorial  Library 


with  hewn  planks,  so  that  their  houses  and  courtyards  are 
arranged  in  very  good  order,  with  a  stockade  against  a  sud- 
den attack;  and  at  the  ends  of  the  street  are  3  wooden  gates. 
In  the  center,  on  the  cross  street,  stands  the  governor's 
house,  before  which  is  a  square  enclosure,  upon  which  4 
patereros  are  mounted,  so  as  to  flank  along  the  streets. 
Upon  the  hill  they  have  a  large  square  house,  with  a  flat 
roof,  made  of  thick  sawn  planks,  stayed  with  oak  beams, 


THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT     63 


upon  the  top  of  which  they  have  6  cannons,  which  shoot  iron 
balls  of  4  and  5  pounds,  and  command  the  surrounding  coun- 
try." 

Such  was  Plymouth  after  seven  years  of  labor  by  the 
small  remnant  of  the  Mayflower  company  which  survived 
the  hardships  of  the  first  winter  upon  the  bleak  shores  of 
Cape  Cod  Bay.  The  Mayflower  made  other  later  trips  and 
brought  other  colonists  from  England,  and  doubtless  from 
the  small  congregation  which  the  Pilgrims  left  behind  at 
Leyden,  in  Holland.  The  little  colony  grew  slowly,  but 
steadily  perhaps,  and  later  became  a  part  of  Massachusetts, 
which  at  a  still  later  date  became  the  beginning  of  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  as  it  is  today. 


Plymouth  Post  Office  and  Custom  House 


64     THE     PILGRIMS'     SETTLEMENT 


MODERN 
PLYMOUTH 

WHILE  by  no  means  forgetful  of  her  distinguished 
past,  Plymouth  is  working  steadily  to  a  position  of 
rank  among  the  thriving  smaller  cities  of  Massachu- 
setts. She  has  "grown  old  gracefully,"  and  bears  her  years 
and  her  honors  as  well  befits  the  oldest  settlement  in  conser- 
vative New  England.  The  passing  of  three  centuries  has  left 
a  town  considerably  modernized  and  with  all  the  usual  com- 
forts and  conveniences  of  the  age,  but  none  the  less  per- 
vaded by  a  spirit  of  old  fashioned  charm  and  animated  by  a 
pardonable  pride  in  her  noble  traditions. 

Importance  The   excellence    of    Plymouth   Har- 

of  Shipping  bor  attracted  the  Pilgrims  in  1620, 

and  the  harbor  today  has  reached  the 
point  where  it  is  second  only  to  that  of  Boston  in  importance 
among  the  Massachusetts  ports  of  entry.  Here  there  are 
received  each  year  foreign  imports  to  the  value  of  more  than 
$7,000,000,  for  at  Plymouth  are  the  largest  cordage  mills  in 
the  country,  and  possibly  the  largest  in  the  world,  and  they 
require  vast  quantities  of  sisal  and  manila,  which  are  had 
from  various  countries,  chiefly  from  Yucatan  and  the 
Philippines.  An  able  and  enlightened  municipal  govern- 
ment years  ago  equipped  Plymouth  with  all  the  customary 
improvements  which  belong  to  a  modern  city.  Adequate 
water  supply  systems  have  long  been  established,  the  source 
being  various  fresh  water  "ponds"  just  to  the  south  of  the 
town.  An  excellent  sewage  system  includes  the  use  of  dis- 
charge pipes  which  extend  1500  feet  into  deep  water  in  Cape 
Cod  Bay.  In  addition  to  being  served  by  the  transportation 
facihties  of  the  N.  Y.  N.  H.  &  H.  Ry.,  and  an  excellent  street 
railway  or  trolley  system,  Plymouth  is  reached  during  a 


66 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


large  part  of  the  year  by  steamers  which  ply  to  and  from 
Boston  across  Massachusetts  Bay.  Motorists  may  reach 
Plymouth  from  Boston  over  a  well  traveled  state  road. 

Until  some  fifty  years  ago  the  fishing  industries,  which 
centered  at  Plymouth,  constituted  a  source  of  wealth  to  the 
people,  but  of  late  years,  the  importance  of  the  fisheries  has 


Plymouth  County  Court  House 


declined  on  all  parts  of  the  New  England  coast.  As  this  in- 
dustry became  yearly  less  and  less  remunerative,  commerce 
and  manufacturing  became  increasingly  important,  more 
than  compensating  for  the  diminishing  revenue  from  the 
fishing  industry.  The  development  of  the  usefulness  of  the 
Cape  Cod  Canal,  which  was  cut  directly  across  Cape  Cod, 
connecting  Buzzard's  Bay  with  Cape  Cod  Bay,  seems  des- 
tined to  exert  a  helpful  influence  upon  Plymouth,  which  pos- 
sesses the  harbor  which  is  nearest  the  canal. 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


67 


68  MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


Growth     of      Among      the      thriving     industries 
»^        ft*  which   add    to   the   wealth   of   Ply- 

mouth, and  which  uphold  the  fame 
of  the  old  town  of  the  Pilgrims,  are  those  devoted  to  the 
manufacture  of  insulated  wire  for  electrical  uses;  zinc  and 
copper  in  various  forms;  boxes,  barrels,  kits  and  kegs.  Oth- 
er large  plants  are  required  for  furnishing  the  electric  power 
for  the  operation  of  numerous  plants,  and  for  the  lighting  of 
the  streets  and  highways,  the  residences  and  business  struc- 
tures of  the  entire  region.  Because  these  and  other  modern 
business  developments  require  a  large  number  of  operatives, 
there  have  come  to  modern  Plymouth  vast  numbers  of  later 
day  "pilgrims,"  —  laborers  from  many  of  the  countries  of 
Southern  Europe. 

In  connection  with  the  shipping  which  centers  in  Ply- 
mouth Harbor,  mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  cord- 
age works  in  which  more  than  2000  workmen  are  employed. 
The  business  of  this  one  concern  is  said  to  amount  to  more 
than  $10,000,000  each  year,  and  the  factories  or  mills,  to- 
gether with  the  necessary  houses  of  these  workers,  form  a 
small  city  in  themselves.  Other  large  factories  are  required 
for  the  manufacture  of  woolen  fabrics,  carpets  and  rugs  of 
different  kinds,  tacks,  nails  and  rivets.  A  large  iron  foundry 
is  devoted  to  the  industry  of  stove  making  and  one  entire 
village,  on  the  outskirts  of  Plymouth,  centers  about  the  large 
plant  of  the  Boston  Woven  Hose  &  Rubber  Co. 

The  entire  country  looks  to  the  neighborhood  of  Cape 
Cod,  and  particularly  to  the  district  surrounding  Plymouth, 
for  a  large  part  of  its  supply  of  cranberries,  and  this  industry 
is  being  carried  on  upon  a  constantly  increasing  scale;  it  is 
reported  that  the  output  of  cranberries  from  this  region 
amounts  to  a  value  of  about  $400,000  each  year,  with  a  grow- 
ing demand  for  these  ancient  products  of  the  Cape  Cod 
region. 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


69 


Clam  Raising 


While,  as  has  been  already  said, 
the  fishing  industries  along  the  New- 
England  coast  have  decreased  greatly  in  value  during  the 
past  few  years,  a  newer  water  industry  has  been  developed 
around  Plymouth,  which  to  some  extent  is  taking  its  place. 
The  broad,  sandy  beaches  near  the  Cape  Cod  shore  are  being 
used  for  the  raising  of  clams  and  already,  it  is  said,  more 
than  1000  acres  are  in  use  for  this  purpose.  The  clams  are 
raised,  or  "cultivated,"  in  a  highly  scientific  manner,  and  are 
"graded"  as  carefully  as  the  apples  which  come  from  certain 
famous  U'Cstern  orchards.  The  sale  of  clams  is  not  the  only 
source  of  revenue  which  this  industry  aftords,  for  the  shells 
are  made  into  by-products  for  poultry  feeding  or  else  made 
into  materials  suitable  for  use  in  making  roads,  so  that  from 
$500  to  $750  per  acre  is  being  realized  annually  from  the 
clam  raising  industry  around  Plymouth. 


Plant  of  the  Plymouth  Cordage  Company 


70 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH  71 


For  generations  one  of  the  unfailing  sources  of  revenue 
for  the  district  around  Plymouth,  and  farther  along  ex- 
tending over  the  whole  of  Cape  Cod,  has  been  the  entertain- 
ment of  summer  visitors.  The  broad,  sandy  beaches  which 
are  numerous  along  the  shores  of  "the  Cape"  attract  visi- 
tors from  every  part  of  the  country.  In  Plymouth  itself 
there  are  several  excellent  hotels,  and  there,  as  well  as 
elsewhere,  are  many  boarding  places  —  large  and  small  — 
where  guests  are  received. 

Public  Schools       '^^^  public  school  system,  in  all  of 

^^A    t:k«««..       the  different  grades,  has  been  care- 
a  n  Q    L-ziDrary        r   n        11         1  11  1  i*      i- 

fully  developed  and  the  public  li- 
brary, which  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  of  the  later  build- 
ings in  Plymouth,  was  founded  almost  half  a  century  ago. 
Almost  all  the  more  important  religious  bodies  are  repre- 
sented by  numerous  churches,  while  two  newspapers,  five 
banking  institutions  and  a  well  organized  fire  department 
add  to  the  fullness  of  the  equipment  of  the  town  of  the  pre- 
sent day. 

Plymouth  in  From   the   first   day   of  its  history, 

the  Wars  Plymouth  has  realized  the  necessity 
of  having  available  suitable  forms  of 
military  defense.  Perhaps  the  spirit  of  vigilance  personified 
during  the  early  days  by  Captain  Myles  Standish  is  still 
alive.  His  name,  too,  has  been  perpetuated  in  the  annals  of 
Plymouth's  military  life,  for  the  "Standish  Guards"  were 
chartered  more  than  a  century  ago  and  were  long  one  of  the 
foremost  companies  in  the  5th  Regiment,  doing  notable  duty 
in  the  civil  war,  and  serving  also  in  the  war  with  Spain. 
In  1861  the  "Standish  Guards"  were"  minutemen,"  and  on 
April  16  with  their  regiment,  then  the  "3rd  Massachusetts," 
were  the  very  first  of  the  Federal  troops,  either  national  or 
volunteer,  to  penetrate  within  the  Confederate  lines,  as  they 
did  when  on  the  gunboat  "Pawnee"  they  ran  the  Confed- 


72 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


erate  batteries  and  destroyed  the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard,  and 
saved  the  ''Cumberland"  on  April  20,  1861.  In  the  late  war 
with  Germany,  the  "Standish  Guards,"  as  part  of  the  Na- 
tional Guard,  were  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United 
States  on  August  8,  1917,  under  the  command  of  Captain 
A.  J.  Carr,  and  141  strong,  encamped  at  Framingham  where 


The  Samoset  House 


a  consolidation  was  made  of  the  5th  and  the  9th  Regiments, 
the  result  being  the  101st  U.  S.  N.  G.  Infantry,  in  the  26th 
Division,  which  left  for  European  service  on  September  7, 
1917. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  this  little  Guide  to  Plymouth  con- 
siderable mention  has  been  made  of  the  historical  spots  in 
which  visitors  are  apt  to  be  interested  and  of  the  relics  of 
the  Pilgrims  which  are  still  contained  in  the  old  town  which 
they  founded.  The  visitor  to  Plymouth  of  the  present  day 
will  find  a  pleasant,  old  fashioned  New  England  town,  or 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


73 


small  city,  which  in  many  respects  is  somewhat  similar  to 
other  towns  in  New  England.  The  buildings  are  not  disposed 
in  just  the  way  which  makes  Marblehead,  for  example,  inter- 
esting to  visitors,  nor  has  Plymouth  the  wealth  of  fine  old 
colonial  mansions,  the  relics  of  a  high  degree  of  commercial 
prosperity,  which  still  abound  in  Salem.  The  Plymouth 
houses,  nevertheless,  are  placed  upon  the  ground  in  a  way 
which  is  quite  their  own.  They  are  not  apt  to  exactly  face 
the  streets,  neither  are  they  always  parallel  to  the  street 
lines;  they  are  placed,  apparently,  in  accordance  with  no 
rule  which  prevails  anywhere  else,  and  it  would  seem  that 
they  were  built  entirely  according  to  the  whims  of  their 
original  owners. 

Old  Byways         Many    of    Plymouth's    streets    are 

shaded  by  the  old  elms  which  are 

characteristic  of  many  New  England  towns  and  villages. 

Sometimes  the  trees  are  lindens  instead  of  elms.     At  the 


% 


Hotel  Pilgrim 


74  MODERN    PLYMOUTH 


corner  of  North  and  Winslow  Streets  stands  the  well  known 
Winslow  house  which  is  shaded  by  spreading  lindens,  planted 
in  1760.  The  trees  have  been  developed  from  tiny  saplings 
—  which  must  have  been  mere  twigs  —  said  to  have  been 
brought  from  England,  growing  in  a  raisin  box.  In  this  old 
house,  which  has  seen  considerable  history,  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson  was  married  to  his  second  wife  in  the  autumn  of 
1835. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  Plymouth  buildings  is 
the  structure  known  as  the  Registry  Building  which  con- 
tains the  various  departments  of  record  and  the  Registry  of 
Deeds.  In  this  latter  department  are  kept  records  of  Ply- 
mouth which  go  back  to  the  very  earliest  days  of  the  colony, 
and  here  in  their  actual  handwriting  are  records  and  docu- 
ments of  different  kinds  made  by  almost  all  of  the  men  who 
helped  to  establish  Plymouth. 

Registry  Bull  dine  Visitors  to  a  town  of  such  histori- 
cal interest  as  Plymouth  are  some- 
times interested  in  examining  old  charters,  codes  of  laws, 
and  other  such  documents,  and  it  may  be  of  interest  to  know 
that  in  Plymouth's  Registry  Building  there  are  ancient 
papers  written  in  the  languages  of  the  Indian  tribes,  signed 
by  the  Indians  by  marks  in  the  forms  of  snakes,  animals,  or 
bows  and  arrows,  and  an  order  in  the  handwriting  of  Gover- 
nor Bradford  which  sets  forth  the  form  of  trials  by  jury. 
Another  document  of  historic  interest  is  the  second  patent, 
granted  in  1629  and  signed  by  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  The 
charter  still  bears  its  large  wax  seal,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  made  for  the  purpose,  and  the  charter  is  still  kept 
within  the  box  in  which  it  originally  came  from  London. 
Those  who  have  examined  these  old  records  say  that  many 
of  them  are  quite  legible  after  the  passing  of  300  years. 
Among  these  ancient  documents  there  is  the  original  map  of 
Leyden  Street,  which  extended  in  earliest  times  —  and  ex- 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH 


IS 


76 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH 


tends  today  —  from  the  water  up  through  the  town  to 
Burial  Hill.  The  old  map  gives  the  names  of  the  first  owners 
of  these  lots,  upon  which  the  original  houses  in  Plymouth 
were  built.  Here  are  also  listed  the  original  laws  by  which 
Plymouth  was  governed. 

Public  Buildings  The  Plymouth  Post^  Office  and 
Custom  House,  which  is  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  of  the  more  modern  buildings,  occupies  the 
site  which  was  assigned  to  Elder  William  Brewster  when 
Leyden  Street  was  originally  laid  out.  Visitors  are  not 
often  interested  in  such  necessary  details  of  a  modern  town 
as  its  prisons,  but  if  anyone  cares  to  examine  the  chief  in- 
stitution of  this  kind  in  Plymouth,  it  may  be  found  just  back 
of  the  Court  House.  At  the  south  end  of  the  town  there  is 
maintained  another  prison  for  those  being  detained  for 
short  terms. 

Of  course  a  live  town  or  small  city  must  have  the  usual 
county  and  city  courts,  and  these  departments  in  Plymouth 


Hotel  Mayflower  at  Manomet 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


77 


are  well  provided  for.  Not  far  from  Pilgrim  Hall,  the  re- 
pository of  many  relics  of  the  Mayflower  company,  which 
has  been  described  in  another  chapter,  stands  the  Plymouth 
Court  House,  surrounded  by  a  little  park.  This  building,  of 
course,  contains  such  usual  of^ces  as  those  of  the  County 
Treasurer,  County  Commissioners,  Clerk  of  the  Court 
and  various  court  rooms,  while  upon  an  upper  floor  there  is 
maintained  a  law  library. 

Historic  Churches    The  First  Parish  Church,  which  faces 
Main  Street,  is  claimed  to  be  the  origi- 
nal church  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  an  ofTshoot  from  the  little  con- 
gregation in  Leyden,  Holland,  which  was  presided  over  by  the 
Rev.  John  Robinson.    This  church  is  said  to   have  an  un- 


The  First  Parish  Church 


78 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH 


broken  record  from  the  very  beginnings  of  Plymouth  to  the 
present  time.  The  present  house  of  worship  of  the  First  Par- 
ish Church  is  a  stone  building  in  the  Norman  style,  and  its 
entrance  doorway  is  a  reproduction  of  the  arched  portal  of 
the  ancient  church  at  Austerfield,  England,  where  Governor 
Bradford  was  baptized.  At  the  right  of  the  First  Church, 
as  one  approaches  it,  is  the  flight  of  stone  steps  which  leads 
up  to  Burial  Hill. 

The  religious  faith  of  the  Pilgrims,  —  the  faith  to  hold 
and  practice  which  they  made  such  heroic  sacrifices  and  en- 


Church  of  the  Pilgrimage 


MODERN    PLYMOUTH 


79 


dured  untold  hardships,  —  was  a  somewhat  broad  form  of 
Protestant  Christianity,  and  is  said  to  be  best  expressed  to- 
day, by  the  CongregationaHst  form  of  beUef.  Religious 
worship,  both  public  and  private,  was  the  common  practice 
of  the  Pilgrims,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  study  the  history 
of  Plymouth  with  this  highly  important  factor  omitted.  The 
Congregational  Church  in  Plymouth  is  known  as  the  "Church 
of  the  Pilgrimage,"  and  the  present  building,  which  was 
erected  in  1840,  is  not  far  from  the  spot  where  the  Pilgrims 
built  the  First  Meeting  House  in  Plymouth  in  1638.  The  Pil- 
grims called  their  churches  "meeting  houses"  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  places  of  worship  of  the  Church  of  England. 
As  a  visitor  to  Plymouth  will  see,  the  old  and  the  new  are 
not  separated  into  two  distinct  districts,  one  being  the  Ply- 


The  Plymouth  Country  Club 


mouth  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the  other  the  Plymouth  of  today. 
On  the  contrary,  the  town  has  grown  surely  but  slowly  for 
300  years  about  very  much  the  same  center,  and  the  old  and 
the  new  are  really  together;  one  may  find  a  building  of  the 
first  historic  interest  next  to,  or  near,  one  of  the  newer 
buildings  in  the  town. 


80 


MODERN     PLYMOUTH 


The  Visitor 
to  Plymouth 


Visitors  to  Plymouth's  historic  spots 
are  apt  to  receive  considerable  atten- 
tion from  small  boys  —  of  several  na- 
tionalities —  who  stand  by  reciting  rapidly  some  of  the  well 
known  poems  which  deal  with  the  spot.  A  visitor  to  the  Rock 
must  expect  to  be  surrounded  by  small  urchins  reciting,  in 
unison,  perhaps,  some  parts  of  Mrs.  Hemans'  ''Landing of  the 
Pilgrims,"  for  example.  This  might  be  tolerated,  possibly, 
if  the  reciting  of  the  stanzas,  from  memories  well  trained, 
fostered  patriotism  or  encouraged  interest  in  the  Rock  or 
veneration  for  it  —  but  alas,  'tis  not  so,  and  the  attention  is 
directed  toward  the  visitor  rather  than  toward  the  Rock, 
and  the  effort  is  made  wholly  in  the  hope  of  gratuities!  In 
discouraging  these  attentions,  which  the  wise  and  expe- 
rienced traveler  will  most  assuredly  do,  it  need  not  be  feared 
that  the  enthusiasm  of  patriotic  youth  will  suffer  a  rebuff. 


The  Headlands  of  Manomet 


POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

TO  BE  SEEN   BY  THE  VISITOR   TO   PLYMOUTH 

The  Landing  Place  of  the  Pilgrims  is  about  opposite 
the  easterly  end  of  North  Street,  where  the  famous  Plymouth 
Rock  will  eventually  repose  with  a  fitting  architectural 
setting. 

Burial  Hill,  the  resting  place  of  most  of  the  Pilgrims 
who  died  after  the  first  winter,  is  practically  in  the  middle  of 
the  town,  a  block  west  of  Main  Street.  Many  are  the  quaint 
stones  to  be  found  here. 

The  National  Monument  to  the  Forefathers  stands 
on  a  rise  of  ground  reached  by  Cushman  or  Allerton  Street 
from  Court  Street,  which  is  the  main  artery  running  north 
through  the  town. 

Pilgrim  Hall,  which  houses  the  collection  of  Pilgrim 
relics,  stands  at  the  corner  of  Chilton  and  Court  Streets, 
about  ten  minutes'  walk  from  the  town  centre.  Here  may  be 
found  many  interesting  and  historical  objects  well  worth 
seeirig. 

The  First  Parish  Church  was  the  original  church  of  the 
Pilgrims,  and  is  located  at  the  head  of  Town  Square. 


82  POINTS     OF     I NTEREST 

The  Congregational  Church,  known  as  the  "Church 
of  the  Pilgrimage,"  stands  at  the  foot  of  Burial  Hill. 

The  Gen.  John  Winslow  House  stands  on  the  corner  of 
Main  and  North  Streets.  Gen.  Winslow  was  at  one  time 
an  officer  in  the  service  of  the  crown.  James  Warren, 
President  of  the  Provincial  Congress,  also  lived  here  at  one 
time. 

The  old  HowLAND  House,  built  in  1666,  on  Sandwich 
Street,  was  purchased  by  the  Howland  Descendants  and 
completely  restored  for  annual  meetings.  It  is  open  to  the 
public  at  specified  times. 

The  Winslow  House,  a  good  example  of  colonial  ar- 
chitecture, was  built  about  1754  by  Edward  Winslow,  a 
great-grandson  of  Gov.  Winslow  of  the  colony.  The  house 
is  situated  on  Winslow  Street  off  North  Street.  Some  ad- 
ditions have  been  made  to  the  original  structure. 

The  Sgt.  William  Harlow  House  was  built  in  1677,  of 
timbers  from  the  Old  Fort  on  Burial  Hill.  This  house  stands 
on  Court  Street  and  is  now  owned  by  the  Plymouth  An- 
tiquarian Society  and  is  open  to  the  public. 

The  William  Crowe  House  is  about  two  miles  north  of 
Market  Square  and  was  built  in  1664. 


POINTS     OF     I N  TEREST  83 

The  Kendall  Holmes  House  was  built  in  1666  and 
stands  on  Winter  Street. 

The  Leach  House,  built  in  1689,  is  on  Summer  Street, 
west  of  the  town's  centre. 

Leyden  Street,  originally  called  "First  Street,"  ran 
from  Water  Street  to  Burial  Hill.  A  short  distance  below 
the  water  front  is  the  site  of  the  first  house. 

Morton  Park  is  an  attractive  spot  lying  about  a  mile 
out,  reached  by  Summer  Street.  It  is  a  natural  park,  con- 
sisting of  nearly  200  acres  of  beautiful  open  country,  brooks, 
ponds,  hills  and  valleys.  Little  Pond  and  Billington  Sea 
are  not  far  beyond  from  this  reservation. 

Long  Beach  reaches  into  the  bay,  forming  a  shelter  or 
inner  harbor,  behind  which  the  Mayflower  dropped  her 
anchor.  To  reach  Long  Beach,  follow  Sandwich  Street  to 
Jabez  corner,  to  Warren  Ave.,  approximately  two  miles 
from  Town  Square.  Electric  cars  cover  the  greater  part  of 
the  distance. 

The  Myles  Standish  Monument,  and  House  built  by 
the  famous  Captain's  son  in  1666,  are  to  be  found  in  Dux- 
bury,  which  is  about  twelve  miles  from  Plymouth  and 
conveniently  reached  by  the  shore  division  of  the  N.  Y.  N. 
H.  &  H.  R.  R. 


84  POINTS     OF     INTEREST 

The  John  Alden  House,  one  of  the  two  famous  old  Pil- 
grim houses,  still  stands  in  Duxbury. 

The  Plymouth  Cordage  Company  plant  in  North  Ply- 
mouth is  the  largest  concern  of  its  kind  in  the  entire  world. 
Great  cargoes  of  fibre  are  brought  in  ships  direct  from  Yuca- 
tan to  Plymouth.  The  Company  has  opened  a  miniature 
plant  where  every  operation  which  takes  place  can  be  viewed 
within  a  small  space  by  the  visitor.  The  plant  can  be 
reached  by  electric  car  to  North  Plymouth. 


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